KureTori
by Volleys-chan
Summary: Tsunade had a secret. She had an informant inside Akatsuki. However, his time in Akatsuki had run out once he was discovered, so naturally she took him in, like their deal agreed. Whoever thought that he would fall for her apprentice? DeiSaku R
1. And That's How He Became My Informant

Hey! This is a new Sakura and Deidara story I thought of. Totally different from all the other stories that you've read and it took me a long time to figure out why he would be welcomed into Konoha. But I finally did and I think it is great! I hope you like it as well.

Now before you read, it does mention rape. But it never goes into full detail. This story was going to go a totally different way, but I decided against it, but still wanted the version of Deidara that the event caused. I know that he will be a bit of OOC, but just imagine if you were in his shoes... Yeah it happens to him, but you'll see why.

Again, this is a very different story and I think the only stories where Deidara was actually accepted into Konoha was Diplomacy By RikkiTikkiTavi and Vertigo by CynChick. So enjoy and I hope that you enjoy this.

By the way, before I stop my ramblings, this idea was inspired by the thought:

Naruto and Deidara are really similar in a way, so what if they became friends? What if Sakura fell for him? Then how would Naruto respond?

So here it is!

Enjoy!!

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_**Kure-tori**_

Chapter 1

_How He Became My Informant

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**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, yeah

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Tsunade couldn't help but smirk as she head the _tap tap tap_ on her window. She opened the window to her office and held out her arm for the strange looking bird to perch on. It looked like a messenger hawk, yet it was an off white color and was nothing more then a kure-tori, a clay bird.

She took the message from its right talon that held it firmly in its grasp and uttered as small thank you to it, not knowing whether the creator would know or not but being polite anyways. The bird just nodded and flew out the window to self-destruct somewhere uninhabited.

"What is that Tsunade-sama?" A cold toned voice asked her.

She looked up and smiled at the red headed teen who had been sitting there. She was mildly surprised that the kure-tori had dropped off the message in the presence of the Kazekage.

"My informant," She said truthfully as she played with the paper in hand, "The reason I wished to talk to you today."

"That was a clay bird, wasn't it?" Gaara noted.

"You are not one to beat around the bush. Yes, you have met him in battle, but he was just taking orders to capture you like any employed ninja would." Tsunade said as she looked at the man's teal eyes.

He closed his eyes and nodded, "Yes, I guess I can accept that. So what about him do you wish to speak about?"

"I made a deal with the kid." Tsunade explained as she sat back in her chair, resting her head in her right hand while fingering the note, "I will explain it to you in detail later, but the basics are he gives me info on Akatsuki; I give him a place in Konoha when he flees."

"However since I am your ally and he personally attacked me and brought me to my demise, you wished to ask if it would be alright." Gaara stated.

It was not a matter of questioning; he knew that was where it was going.

"I have already made the deal," Tsunade corrected, "But I still wanted to get your approval on the whole situation. He would become a leaf shinobi, and your ally."

"I see," Gaara said as he closed his eyes again to think.

He opened them again and looked at the elderly Hokage whose years were hidden well in her young appearance.

"I shall accept the fact that he will exist here. Just like Naruto and I fight for acknowledgement, he too must be searching for those who will accept him. I, if anything, should be grateful for the events that led to the removal of Shukaku, so in a way I need be grateful for the battle that he and I shared." Gaara said with a condoning look in his eyes.

Tsunade just beamed at the other kage and looked at the note, "Well now that that's out of the way, let's see what he wrote."

Tsunade's good mood vanished as she began reading the contents of the letter. Worry entered her eyes as she slammed down the note and looked at Gaara.

"I guess it was a good thing you agreed to him being here, because he was discovered and is making his way here." She said in an unhappy tone.

"Then let us go and welcome him," Gaara said as he removed the kage robes.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at that, "Us? As in just you and I?"

"His coming here should not be well known. As little as possible should even know of his staying here until the whole fiasco called Akatsuki is resolved. Bring your personal ANBU and that should suffice," Gaara said, as he made sure his gourd was securely strapped to his back, "Plus I am very curious as to why you accepted I'd like to hear the story on the way."

Tsunade smirked as she nodded at Gaara. She snapped her fingers and five masked shinobi appeared in the room. Sometimes being Hokage rocked.

* * *

"So, tell me of how this all came about," Gaara said as he leapt to another tree branch.

"This is not to be repeated in any way ever. Not written, not by hand gestures, not by words, nothing," Tsunade said to her ANBU who all nodded their agreement, "This is how the kid and I met:

I have tea outside of the village every once in a while to free myself of the headache known as paperwork. Okay, so it was a small little teahouse and I wasn't really ordering tea. I was sitting in the corner of the room with a clear view of the entrance and sipping on some sake, that's when he showed up in the doorway.

We had never planned it, never saw it coming that we both would choose the same little teashop on the same day and hour, but it happened. I recognized him immediately, but kept my head and watched him. He was wearing his kasa and cloak, but I could tell who he was by the blond hair hanging in his face. He looked rather annoyed and tense. I wondered why someone like him would even travel alone, but I didn't ask since I wasn't trying to draw attention to myself.

I didn't have any backup and he- by description in the bingo book- was a long distance fighter and I was not a good match up. The kid looked around the teashop and to his dissatisfaction all the tables and seats were taken, save the seat on my table across from me.

At the time I was cursing my luck as he made a movement and stood next to me and looked down at me with his eyes and pointed to the spot before uttering something I never thought a brute like him would say.

"May I sit with you, yeah? I normally wouldn't ask, but there are not other seats, so please?" He had asked me with a level voice.

I was surprised by how deep and masculine his voice actually was. His picture made him look like his voice would be higher and more feminine but that isn't really the point. I nodded my consent as I brought the sake to my lips.

"What brings you out here all aggravated kid?" I asked him in the tone I use with Naruto.

He just took off his Kasa and folded his hands and placed them on his lap as he ordered his food and tea. He looked at me after a moment and pulled his lips into a frown.

"Nothing that really concerns you, miss." He said with a still polite tone, he muttered under his breath thinking that I would hear, but I did, "I just hate my job, yeah."

"So, why stay if you hate it? That hard to get out?" I questioned him with a gentle gaze.

He looked rather surprised that I had heard him and looked at me with a sharp eye. I could immediately tell that he knew I was more then meets the eye. He might have been young but he seemed rather smart- a genius if he was given the chance.

"Not that easy," he finally said with a sigh, deciding that he might as well since he already seemed in trouble, "I didn't even want the job. It's one of those 'no-say-in-anything' kinds of jobs, yeah. Plus it pays."

I had paused to let the woman set down the red bean paste buns and the cup of tea in front of him. He muttered a 'thanks' and immediately began to pick at his food. It was rather cute actually how childishly he ate the food. I was trying rather hard not to mother him at the second. But he was young like Naruto and I could tell from his table manners that his manners had been self-taught. He probably learned the right way in addressing someone in the academy in Iwagakure but that was his limit.

I don't know why, maybe it was his eye color and hair color that reminded me so much of Naruto, but my heart went out to him at that moment and I decided to risk making a deal with him.

"Did you ever wish to get out of it? To leave? I mean what's holding you back kid?" I asked him as I took another sip.

"Of course I want to leave," He said quietly with his mouth full, just proving my theory, "But I value my life. I'm not done improving my art yet, yeah."

I smirked at him, as I looked him straight in the eye, "Then make a deal with me."

He stared at me, his whole body stiffening as he really actually tried to place me. I ignored his look and gave him a cocky smile before telling him, "I'm a gambling kind of gal and I see a rather good gain on helping you. But, I scratch your back you scratch mine."

That got his attention. He stayed quiet, still not knowing exactly who I was, but knew I had the power to back up whatever I was saying. I couldn't help but keep my smirk plastered on my face as I watched him come to a resolve.

"I am willing to do that, yeah," He said with a nod, "I'm guessing you know who I am and have reason to want what I know."

"Of course," I chimed as I looked at him, "Naruto is very hard to contain in the village and I would love to know when not to let him out."

I had finally shown him a bit of my hand. His eyes went wide as he finally realized whom I was and what I could do or offer. His hands instinctively when to the clay pouches on his hips, but I stopped him with my comment.

"Let's be real. I knew who you were the moment you stepped into the place. If I wanted to kill you I would have killed you the moment you said the word 'May'. Now move your hands away from the pouches and finish your meal while we discuss our agreement." I stated with a firm tone as I took another sip of my sake.

"Why offer me anything, yeah?" He asked skeptically.

"Don't know, but I know now that you don't like being an Akatsuki member and I particularly don't like the idea of Akatsuki having as large as a number as it has now. So here's the deal. For however long you can, you are going to send information to me about Akatsuki's movements. If they are after Naruto, tell me so I can keep him in. If they are going to attack Konoha, tell me so that I can send Naruto out with Jiraiya and throw them off the trail. If you do this, I will give you shinobi status in Konoha, take you out of our bingo books and possibly Suna's, erase all criminal records you have in Konoha and maybe even Suna's and protect you from Akatsuki's wrath as best as I can. That's a pretty good deal and you'll be paid for all information you send to me once you are safely in Konoha and you can decide from there out if you want to continue being a shinobi or retire." I told him with a stern look.

He made no movement to attack and just sat there staring at me with the most surprised look on his face. He seemed to think that either it was a big joke or he was dreaming. I think I even saw him pinch himself just to make sure. He took his time thinking it through and finally looked at me with those blue eyes and sharp gaze that no kid his age should have.

"It sounds a little too good to be true, yeah. But I really don't like Akatsuki. I hate the Uchiha; in fact, I hate all of the people that are apart of the organization, yeah. Especially the Uchiha, yeah." He explained as he looked down at his hands, "Don't expect me to build a clan or anything like that, yeah. Hell, if you force me to build a clan I will leave. I will only have a family if I chose to have one and I don't want to ranked anything lower then jounin. If you agree to those terms, then I will accept your offer, yeah."

I just nodded as I looked at his eyes, "You have a deal. I will want to keep you close at first, but only to keep an eye on you and make sure people understand you aren't going to hurt the village in anyway. Is that fine?"

He just nodded as he flashed me a true smile saying only "Yeah" to what I had just said. After that we discussed how he could contact me and how I would contact him. He would send clay birds with messages and I wouldn't contact him since that would endanger him. That was our agreement and he had fulfilled it to this very day." Tsunade finished and cast a glance at Gaara.

"I'm actually worried about him since he has been having to use a enhanced transformation jutsu to work, using his chakra to give him a physical change to whatever he transformed into. Last time he wrote, he explained that he had to take on the appearance of a geisha- anatomy and all. The mission was still suppose to be going on, so something must have happened during it." Tsunade confessed as she looked at the break in the trees in the distance, "He's a sweet kid. Cocky and die-hard stubborn and prideful, but sweet otherwise."

"He apparently awakens your maternal side like Naruto." Gaara noted as he looked at the woman, "I am beginning to see why Naruto looks up to you."

Tsunade would have continued the conversation, but at that moment they had entered the rendezvous point. It was a small field only big enough to land a small clay bird and easily over looked by people who didn't know the land. Tsunade forced herself to stifle her gasp as she looked at the boy leaning on the smallish clay fly vessel.

He was still in his henge, tears mixed with mascara staining his face along with massive bruising on almost every inch of him that she could see. His hair was up in the traditional geisha way with a shorter strand of his very long bangs covering up the left side of his face. Hair was falling out of the hairdo and he was still wearing the kimono he had put on that day- or maybe day before. He was gripping an open wound on his side as he tired to keep the shredded kimono from falling off his body.

"I'm glad you finally came, yeah," He said with a lighter more female voice that went with his guise.

"Were you discovered?"

"No duh I was discovered, or I wouldn't be here, yeah! I'd still be holding up my part of the agreement! Somehow Pein discovered me and… and…" He began to choke on the tears as he fought them off.

Tsunade was already approaching him and brought him into a firm hug, noticing how he practically fell apart as he buried his face into her shoulder to cry.

"We need to get you out of here." Tsunade said as she looked over at the Kazekage, "Do you think you could get us back quickly via sand?"

She could feel Deidara stiffen at the comment, ready to jerk away if need be. Tsunade just ran her hand down his back in a comforting way to let him know everything would be fine as long as she was there.

"I could take you back to Konoha that way, but it is not as fast as if I shunshin a couple of times. With my amount of chakra we would get back faster." Gaara's voice explained before addressing the boy, "I have already talked to Tsunade-sama and you have nothing to fear from me. I will let the past stay in the past as long as you don't make another attempt at my life."

Deidara just nodded in Tsunade's shoulder as he continued to cry, relaxing a bit even though it was against his better judgment. Tsunade could tell that whatever had gone on before he had gotten here was rather emotional and stressful just by how he seemed to lower his guard.

Gaara and the ANBU neared the Hokage and her informant since it didn't seem as she was going to move. She just let the boy- who was still in the henge- cry on her shoulder and she scooped up his legs and held him in the bridal position. Gaara just nodded and put his hands up and shunshined them out of the area and repeated the process several times.

* * *

Tsunade actually was glad that Deidara hadn't dropped the enhanced henge as they appeared at the gates. She just threw a glare at the guards daring them to even gossip about it. Deidara had wrapped his arms around her neck at that time in a hug like manner and passed out due to the lack of blood and emotional stress that had caused such a strong and prideful boy to break down in tears.

It was a quick trip to the hospital as Tsunade wordlessly took an empty ER room that had already been prepped thanks to Shizune. She set Deidara down on the empty cot and gently but swiftly began to remove the kimono, noticing how Deidara flinched at the act and began to assess the damage. She quickly noted the stitching around his arms and the strange tattoo on his chest. He had explained those to her in the letters so if something ever went wrong as it did she would know what he already had and didn't have.

Tsunade almost had a conniption over the gashes and bruising the poor boy had. His entire stomach was black and blue as well as his bosom –those bruises actually looked like hands- and his side had a deep cut too close to his organs for Tsunade. She could now easily understand why the boy broke down in tears; someone had raped him.

The old hokage took the time to discover the seal that Deidara used to keep the henge and deactivated it to return his body to normal. She couldn't help but feel that is wasn't as bad now that he wasn't a petite female geisha.

Tsunade pulled out the hairpins and let his hair fall over the cot as she inspected his head for a concussion. There was a rather large goose egg in the back of his head and his left eye was black and swollen looking from being abused.

Muscles had been torn, huge gashes that threatened his life, bones sprained or fractured or even snapped, and bruises on almost every inch of his body. Someone wanted him to suffer and badly.

By the time Tsunade was done healing his life threatening wounds and mending his bones, she was exhausted. She had healed a couple of the bruises on his body -the ones that looked like hands; but since they were superficial, it was better to let them heal on their own.

She didn't trust anybody at the moment with the boy so she reactivated the seal and dressed him in a baggy shirt and boxers before lifting him up into her arms, and taking him back to her place.

"Shizune," Tsunade barked as she left the ER room, "This is a very special guest of mine and I don't want any rumors of her going around just yet so keep those who have seen her quite. I am taking her back to my house and I expect you to assign some of my ANBU to watch her and inform me when she wakes."

Shizune, who had waited outside the doors, nodded as she followed the Hokage down the hall, "Hai, Tsunade-sama. I will get on that immediately. Also I wanted to inform you that Team Kakashi will be returning in about three months time."

"Good. I don't want to handle Naruto meeting my guest just yet. Let's give her some time to recover a bit."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama."

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Sooooooo... How did you like it? I know you'd all prefer me to go and finish Gashin: Artistic Instinct, but I am sorta stuck and I had already had this chapter (plus several others) written so I am finally posting another chapter. I will try to balance out my attention to all my stories, but for now enjoy a new one.

Remember: Deidara is a bit OOC but events form our personality and this one _definately_ formed his.

And forgive me!!! I didn't want to but I needed something that will make him how he is in later chapters!!!

Please tell me what you think so far!!

Ja Ne

Volleys-chan


	2. Tsunade's Duckling

Wow, I posted this late last night and when I woke up, BAM I had twelve emails and four more reviews then the night before. And it's not even noon! You guys are amazing! I am so impressed by all the people wanting an update - or maybe I am just becoming more infamous for these stories (HAHAHAHA) that people are just yearning to read them!!

Not really but a girl can dream, yeah?

Again, I wish to remind you that Deidara is a bit OOC. But eventually he will get back his spunk. Everyone be excited, Sakura's coming back home!!! WOOt! Lol... to little sleep can affect your brains people so don't forget to go to bed at the proper time or else you will begin to ramble like me.

Thanks to all my reviewers, I am glad you like the story so far and to those who liked Tsunade finding him first, well:

THANK YOU!!! I thought that she would be the only one to be able to bring him in without complications. I mean she is the Hokage after all- which is a dictatorship (even though everone says there is a concil (which if you look in the manga or anime... it doesn't exist. It's completly fanbased) and they are usually always against the Hokage.)

So here it is!

Enjoy!!

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_**Kure-tori**_

Chapter 2

_Tsunade's Duckling  


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**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, yeah

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Deidara slept for three days. Sometimes he would cry out in his sleep with nightmarish memories or whimper and shed tears. Tsunade just kept herself close by to make sure that when he did cry out or cry that she could comfort him. Once he finally woke up, his eyes were not like the proud, confident person that Tsunade had met all those months ago, he was sad, embarrassed, and broken.

"I'm glad your awake," Tsunade said as she began a conversation with him, "You had me worried for a bit; you had really taken a beating."

Deidara just flinched at the memories as he dully nodded, "It was quite a demeaning way of punishment."

He realized that his voice was back to his old voice and he lightly checked his chest to find his flat chest instead of the rather voluptuous bosom of a female.

"I deactivated the seal once you were in the safety of my home. Only _my_ ANBU know about you and are taking turns watching you," Tsunade explained, "Not like I have really left you alone in the house."

"How long have I been out for, yeah," he croaked hoarsely, his throat dry.

"Three days. I checked you injuries…" Tsunade said as she trailed off for a moment, "I'm sorry. If you weren't working for me you wouldn't of gotten-"

"I knew what I was getting into," Deidara interrupted, "I knew there would be a punishment if caught. I'm rather glad I stabbed them in the back, yeah… It was just so embarrassing… I couldn't even get him off of me… yeah…"

Deidara looked about ready to cry, but Tsunade petted his hair and gave him a comforting look.

"I need to discuss a few things with you before we talk about 'it', okay?"

"I really don't want to talk about 'it', yeah" Deidara grumbled as he pulled up the blanket to hide his face.

"Fine, but as a medic, I'm going to tell you that you'll need to share your story with someone one day. It'll help if you get it off your chest." Tsunade stated a she opened the file she had, "Now this is your new file. For now I want you to use your enhanced henge to appear as your female self. Less people that know about you while Akatsuki still exists, the better. You'll be allowed to stay here at the Senju complex. I have also taken the liberty to give you fake papers."

Tsunade said as she pulled out two papers, "One for your normal appearance and one for your female. Your new surname is Kure-tori."

She noticed Deidara pull down the blankets a bit to expose his face. He was smirking with an amused gleam in his eye as he continued to listen to the woman.

"You are a branch member of the Senju clan and that is why you are staying with me, your distant cousin. You could probably get away with call me Tsunade-obasan. (Aunt Tsunade) You are allowed to drop the henge when at the complex or in my office when no one else is around. Your new name when you are going around the village is Rei. Once everything clears up with Akatsuki you can go back to Deidara in public, but for now it's Rei. Is this good for you?"

"Yeah," Deidara said as he nodded his head, "I'm fine with it, yeah. Thank you."

"Thank you what?" Tsunade asked, coaxing him with a smirk on her face.

"Thank you Tsunade-obasan, yeah." Deidara said with an amused smirk, "I'll get use to it in time. Right now I'm really tired, yeah."

"Are you hungry?" Tsunade asked, "Because you've haven't had anything to eat in a couple of days and I wouldn't want my new cousin to die of starvation after all you've done for me."

Deidara was about to refuse, but his stomach growled loudly in protest to being empty. He could feel Tsunade's grin even though he was adverting his eyes with a huge blush on his face as he nodded. She just smiled and got up to fetch him some food.

* * *

Deidara had yet to every leave her side. If they weren't in the complex, he'd be right next to her, slightly paranoid of being alone. Tsunade didn't mind it, she just felt like a mother duck with her duckling.

She really couldn't blame him for being paranoid. He would still cry in his sleep sometimes of the memories flooded back to him. He had been very obedient to Tsunade and tried to be polite to Shizune, who had taken a shine to him in a sisterly kind of way. She had figured out his whole situation since Tsunade couldn't really withhold any information from her –since she was around her almost as much as Deidara.

She would go out of her way at times to bring him food or a brand of tea she discovered he liked and gave him goodies. He couldn't help but complain at times that he was 19 for crying out loud and wasn't a child, but that was usually before he noticed the treat and ate it happily.

Deidara had met with Gaara in Tsunade's office and both had come to an agreement. Yes, the fight had happened; yes, Deidara won; No, it wasn't Deidara who killed him; and no, Deidara was not sorry about the fight. He had thoroughly enjoyed the battle with Gaara and would love to spar with him in the near future. It was rather amazing how the two actually got along. Both had an affinity with earth –Gaara with sand and Deidara with clay- so they exchanged some notes before Gaara returned to Suna.

It had been a little over two months that he had began his life in Konoha and he had yet to become an official shinobi, but at the moment he was still recovering from his beating and the massive bruises were at the end and were faded, being just discolored patches in his skin that were either a sickly yellow or a light red. Tsunade actually didn't mind that he wasn't off doing some mission because he was actually really good with paperwork. He would watch her write, memorizing how she did her calligraphy and then would go through a stack of paperwork and write it in her handwriting.

She went over it at first to make sure that he was doing it correctly but as soon as she realized he knew what he was doing, she stopped checking all of them and only check one every once in a while. Deidara would just smirk as he watched her impressed expression and continue with his work.

However, one morning during the third week of the second month, Deidara, to Tsunade's surprise, was not in his bed sleeping in like usual. She wandered to his bathroom and lightly knocked on the door.

"Dei-kun," She called, "You in there?"

"Y-y-y-yes," Deidara's voice stuttered weakly.

Tsunade furrowed her brow as she looked at the door wondering what was up, "You okay?"

"N-N-No," He said weakly again.

"I'm coming in then," Tsunade said as she put her hand on the handle.

Deidara didn't voice any protests so she figured he was decent. She opened the door slowly to see Deidara slumped against the wall near the toilet, panting slightly and looking incredibly pale. Tsunade wasted no time feeling his forehead to find he was clammy and had a slightly high temperature.

"You feel warm," She said as she removed her hand.

Deidara didn't reply as he suddenly paled even more and lurched for the toilet to empty his stomach. He pulled back slowly and flushed. He looked at her with hope in his eyes as he leaned back against the wall. Tsunade noted how his whole body was trembling and his hair was a royal mess and it went wherever it pleased.

"I f-feel terrible," he croaked as he just stared at her with pained eyes.

"Let me go get you something to settle your stomach. Then we'll get you back in bed." Tsunade said as she started to leave.

"No, yeah." He shook his head no, "You are needed at the office. I'll just sleep on the couch in there. I'll be fine, just don't leave me alone."

Tsunade understood. He was recovering yes, but he still couldn't handle the fear of being alone without her or Shizune being there. She disappeared through the doorway and came back ten minutes later to see him empty his stomach yet again. She gave him a glass of something, which he drank with a disgruntled expression.

"Tastes terrible, yeah. Are you sure that's suppose to help?" He asked as he handed her the cup and leaned his head against the wall.

"Yes, now brush you teeth, we don't want the acid from your stomach to eat away at them anymore then they already have." Tsunade said as she turned on the faucet and began to rinse the cup.

He just nodded as he weakly got up and stood next to her as he grabbed his toothbrush and toothpaste and began to clean his mouth. Tsunade almost cracked up when she watched him clean the toothbrush, reload it with toothpaste and began to brush his other teeth.

"What," He growled, showing signs that the medicine was helping, "I have to take care of them too, yeah. Unless I want them to rot and forced to wait till I'm twenty-one to grow in new ones."

"You grow new ones?" She asked rather surprised at the idea.

"Every three years, yeah."

"That's one for the books," Tsunade said as she patted him on the back, "Get dressed into something comfortable and grab a pillow and blanket. I'll see you at the door in twenty minutes."

"Shizune told you to keep away from the sake," Deidara stated as he switched hands, "Don't come smelling like that crap or I'll get you in trouble, yeah."

"Don't be a stick in the mud," Tsunade grumbled as she walked out of his room.

"Don't get me in trouble with Shizune-onee-chan."

"Super Gaki."

"Baa-chan, yeah."

Deidara just held a hand up to his heart, panting in the adrenaline rush, as he glanced over to the kunai that had almost killed him.

* * *

Tsunade looked once again at the blonde who had take up residence on her couch in her office. He was still considerably pale and currently out of the henge since anyone who would enter knocked first unless it was her ANBU and they had already knew about Deidara. He was staring at her with heavy eyes, unable to get back to sleep or maybe unable to sleep in fear of throwing up.

The day was rather peaceful and Shizune had come in a couple of minutes ago to give her and Deidara a snack. Tsunade actually liked these snack times that Shizune had started because it gave her a reason to take a small break in between stacks of paper work. Deidara had only taken a bite before saying he wasn't hungry, but Tsunade knew it was because he didn't want to throw up whatever food he put into his system.

He snuggled further into the blankets until all that could be seen was part of his face and his long hair. The down blanket distorting his form and making him look like a fluffy blob. He had finally closed his eyes and Tsunade was knew he was just an inch away from sleep when the door crashed open and another blonde appeared in the doorway with his team right behind him screaming on the top of his lungs.

"Tsunade-baa-chan! We're back, tebayo!!!"

Deidara seemed to jump a foot before his upper half crashed onto the floor. Tsunade thumped her head on her desk and he groaned and rubbed his now very sore head.

"Get in here all of you and close the door," She yelled as she straightened up and glared at the other blonde.

"Naruto!" the pink haired girl yelled as she grabbed his ear, "Shizune told you to be quiet! And you know you're suppose to knock!" She then turned her attention to Tsunade and bowed, "Sorry Tsunade-shishou, I didn't stop him in time."

Now Kakashi and Sai came in the door with Sai wordlessly closing the door behind him. She was rather relieved that it wasn't someone like the council or Danzou. She had yet to inform them of Deidara since he was to remain a safe secret until Akatsuki was well taken care of.

"It's fine," Tsunade sighed as she cracked as smile.

The others had yet to see Deidara because of the fact that the couch rested on the wall the door was on. She just watched as he managed to put himself back on the couch and flip the bird to Naruto –who she was glad had not seen it- and dive back under his blanket and snuggle in the pillow trying to find sleep once more.

"What's so funny, shishou?"

"Nothing. So welcome back gakis, how was the mission?"

"I can't believe you made us do that! It was long and boring! I could have been training or even looking for Sasuke-teme! Dattebayo!" Naruto complained as he stormed up to the desk.

Deidara shot him a glare at the name of the Uchiha, but no one had yet noticed him other then Tsunade.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled in a lecturing tone, "Tsunade-shishou is the Hokage and she can give us any mission she pleases. Stop being such a pain."

"Ugly is right," Sai said with a huge fake smile.

Deidara held his breath as he stifled the laughter. Tsunade was staring his direction with smirk. He just rolled his eyes as he pulled up the blanket and buried his face into the pillow a bit more.

"IT NOT FAIR THOUGH!" Naruto yelled, making Deidara jump a little but not enough to make him fall off the couch again.

"Naruto, keep your voice down, people are trying to sleep," Tsunade reprimanded him as she shot her gaze at the figure on the couch.

Naruto immediately turned his head along with the rest of team Kakashi and looked at the lump on the bed, a pair of familiar eyes glaring at Naruto. Deidara lightened his glance as he looked over to Tsunade and she gave him a nod. He sighed loudly as he pulled the blanket back and looked at the familiar faces. Not really enjoying seeing the man who had removed his arm standing so close to him.

"Yo," He finally said with waved a hand in front of him and let the tongue wag a bit with a sly smirk on his face.

"YOU!" Naruto roared as he tried to attack Deidara, but was swiftly held back by Tsunade who had gotten him in a hold.

Sakura got into a defensive mode while Sai looked at him with a huge smile, not bothering to move, and Kakashi just turned a page in his book.

"Shut up Naruto, he isn't the enemy!"

"He killed Gaara!"

"Technically, Gaara-sama and I have come to the agreement that _Akatsuki_ was responsible for his death, I just defeated him, yeah." Deidara grumbled as he laid back down and pulled the blanket back over his head.

Naruto looked rather dumbfounded as he just stared at the other teenager in disbelief. Sakura relaxed as she stared at him too.

"You talked to Gaara?"

"Of course he did you idiot," Tsunade said as she released him, "I wouldn't let him in here if I didn't trust him. He's been my informant in Akatsuki shortly after the Suna incident."

"So how is the council taking his presence here?" Sai asked as he looked her way.

"_They_ don't know. No one technically knows his presence here since he just escaped Akatsuki a few months ago." Tsunade explained as she sat back down on her chair, "The only reason I'm telling you is because your group it more likely to recognize him since you have met before in battle. Right Kakashi?"

"Yep, though I do remember him with one less limb, possibly two." Kakashi said in a bored, but teasing tone as he looked up from his book.

Deidara grumbled to himself as he glared angrily at Kakashi. Tsunade swore it sounded something like, 'And I went through hell to get them reattached, yeah.'

"Is he alright?" Sakura asked as she turned to her master, "He seems rather pale."

"Deidara is just suffering a stomach virus. He should be back to normal in a couple of days." Tsunade said with a grin, "Good observation though Sakura."

"So if he is an informant of yours why isn't he still at Akatsuki informing you of things, 'tebayo?" Naruto asked with a huff.

"I got found out," Deidara said from under the covers, "I barely made it back here _alive_, yeah"

"He's staying with me now that he has held up his side of the bargain," Tsunade explained, "He's going under the alias of Kure-tori Rei, my distant cousin from a branch family. So if you see us later, don't even bother asking who the person next to me is, Naruto, because I will hit you."

"Nani?" Naruto questioned as he tilted his head in confusion, "Why wouldn't I recognize him?"

"You've got to be kidding me, yeah," Deidara groaned as he once again pushed back the covers, swung his legs over the couch and sat up, "Itachi-" Which he said in a rather hateful tone. "-couldn't catch this idiot?"

"Hey!!!" Naruto yelled angrily as he scowled at the other blonde, "Just because I'm not book smart like Sakura or cunning like Sasuke doesn't mean I'm not smart!"

"Just not very observant," Sakura said with a roll of her eyes.

She took the time to look at Deidara. There was a discolored bruise on his right cheekbone. She couldn't help but notice his wary glances at all of the people in the room besides Tsunade. He looked rather ruffled with the males in the room since he wasn't looking at her as much.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto whined as he looked at her, "You're siding with him?"

"Okay," Tsunade interrupted as she slammed hands onto the desk, "Get out! Write your reports and send the to me, I am getting a headache! Sakura, come back here after you're done dropping off your things and have relaxed a bit."

"What about me, Dattebayo?" Naruto cried out as he looked at her pleadingly, "Why do you only want Sakura-chan?"

"Because," Tsunade said as she clenched her teeth and rubbed her head, "Sakura is my _apprentice_; you are Jiraiya's. She is expected to work longer hours since she is my apprentice. NOW LEAVE BEFORE I THROW YOU OUT THE WINDOW!"

"Better do it, yeah," Deidara smirked, "I saw her do it last week, not pretty."

Naruto just shivered as he looked at Tsunade. He bowed and headed for the door without a sound.

"Oh," Tsunade said, Naruto stopping in his tracks, "As I stated, no one knows about Deidara. So no talking about it. It's an S class secret and if I hear you leaked it you will be in so much trouble that D ranked missions for the rest of your life would sound wonderful."

"H-Hai Tsunade-baa-chan," Naruto stuttered as he nodded again.

He shot a glare at Deidara who just stuck out his tongue with a smirk before lying back down to try to sleep again. Sai and Kakashi went out without causing a fuss, though Kakashi did throw in a joke to Deidara about his arms.

"So it was only a flesh wound?"

"Get away from me you jerk, yeah." Deidara growled from the couch, "I worked too hard for you to be bothering me."

Sakura remained. Tsunade shot her a questioning glance and Sakura just shrugged and smiled, "I already dropped my things off and took a shower. Kakashi-sensei always allows us to relax a bit before coming here for debriefing."

"The report?"

"Finished it on the way back." Sakura said as she pulled a scroll out of her pouch and handed it to Tsunade.

"And this is why you're my apprentice and Naruto is Jiraiya's," Tsunade said with a grin as she took the scroll, "Since you are on top of things, you should take a break. Go see how Shizune is and leave me to my peace."

Sakura shot a silent questioning glance towards Deidara who once again was cozy on the couch, trying to drift off.

"Don't worry about him. He's been here for a good eleven weeks and hasn't even bothered me in the slightest. He's a good kid."

"Not a kid," Deidara voice grumbled, muffled by the pillow.

"He's a good gaki," Tsunade corrected herself as she shot a grin at Deidara.

"Obasan…" was all Sakura could make out of his comeback.

"If you say so shishou," Sakura said as she headed for the door, "I'll be back in a bit so no sake."

"I couldn't possibly drink sake," Tsunade denied as she smiled innocently, "I have paperwork that I need to get done."

Sakura just rolled her eyes as she exited the room and shut the door behind her, and headed out to find the pig carrying woman.

* * *

Tsunade almost sighed in relief when she noticed the blond on her couch was asleep. He had had quite a day so far and she knew he wasn't feeling all too well. She got up from her chair and slowly walked over to him, making sure her heels didn't make a loud _click_ sound as she made her way to him. She had learned during the two months that he had been with her that he memorized chakra signatures so that he knew who was approaching. Even in his sleep, as long as one chakra signature he trusted was close by, he wouldn't wake up. And to Tsunade's joy, he trusted her.

She rested her hand on his forehead, taking his temperature and slightly frowned. It had been warm that morning, but it wasn't all too warm anymore. She shrugged as she considered that it might have been a one time thing and pulled her hand away. She looked around the room knowing that she needed to go for a walk, but didn't dream of leaving Deidara alone. He was still jumpy from being attacked.

Sure he covered it well, but she could tell that he wasn't very fond of people he didn't know. He almost jumped onto the ceiling and clung to it like a cat the first time another male approached him. He was good with Gaara, but that was because of what Gaara had told him the first day. He was getting better, but he needed to socialize a bit more and with people younger then Tsunade and Shizune.

At that moment there was a light knock and the flair of Sakura's chakra, letting her master know that it was her. Tsunade opened the door and looked down at the young 16-year-old girl with a mischievous grin.

"Tsunade-shishou," Sakura said as her stomach dropped, "What's with the look? It's kind of scaring me…"

"Sakura," Tsunade said with an unpleasing tone to the pinkette- it was the 'I just found a victim' kind of tone, "I need you to do me a favor."

"Wha… What do you need shishou?" Sakura asked nervously as she looked at the lioness's rich honey colored eyes.

Tsunade just pulled her into the room and such the door as she pointed to the sleeping teenager, "I need you to stay with him until I return."

"You want me to watch _him_? Why me? Why not your ANBU?" She whispered so not to disturb him.

"They are already watching him, he just doesn't like to be alone…" Tsunade said as she trailed off, "Remember I mentioned he would look different in public?"

Sakura had no clue to where her master was going but nodded anyways, waiting for the older woman to continue.

"Well it's a special kind of henge that allows the person to physically change their body. Sorta like how a shadow clone is physically there. The henge isn't a genjutsu like most, it's a ninjutsu. Deidara uses it to make himself look like a female in public…"

"That's really cool shishou, but what does it have to do with him not wanting to be alone?"

Tsunade looked down at the sleeping male and her eyes saddened a bit at the memory. His beaten body and the damage done to his personnel. She beckoned his apprentice to follow her to her desk as she pulled out Deidara's medical file.

"This is what he looked like when he got here," She stated as she showed her the pictures of his beaten form, "When I met him at the rendezvous point, he was still in his undercover guise as a geisha from one of his Akatsuki missions…"

Sakura looked at the pictures with horror as she chanced a look at the faded bruise on his face. She wasn't as dense as Naruto was and easily added the facts.

"Was he… you know… attacked in that form?" Sakura asked knowing full well that her teacher knew she meant the other meaning to the word.

"Yes," She said with a sad expression, "He was. He doesn't talk about it, but it was obvious in the state he came in what had happened when he tried to escape. They had discovered him and decided to make a fool of him in such a dainty and weaker form. He's rather clingy with me because he only trusts me… and Shizune, but I want you to earn his trust as well… He needs someone around his age he can trust and I know he won't go for a male… not yet. I trust you to help him. But that's only if you want. Don't pity him, he hates being pitied. So could you watch him for me? Just for a bit?"

Sakura nodded as she forced a smile on her face, "Yeah, I can watch him. He's asleep so he won't be much trouble."

"He might cry out in his sleep," Tsunade warned as she put the file away, "Just approach him without any malice and make your chakra as gentle as possible. He can tell if you are a threat by sensing your chakra. If he does happen to cry in his sleep, don't wake him just play with his hair or whatever you think might relax him. If he wakes up, just tell him that I'll be back later and take him out to get something to eat. He hasn't eaten all day since his stomach has been disagreeing with him. You think you can do that?"

Sakura nodded with a faint smile on her face. She knew better then to judge someone or pity them because of something like that. She had lost her family only five months ago and understood. She hated people's pity and there was no way she was going to pity him. Feel bad for him, understand him to a point, but not pity.

Tsunade couldn't help but grin widely as she headed to the door and quietly closed it behind her, leaving a note that she had gone for a walk so no one walked in and see Deidara and assumed the wrong thing. As she walked down the hall, she couldn't help but know that the two would become good friends. Perhaps they could even heal each other…

Now that was something that the Hokage deeply wished for. Those two were like her children along with Naruto and she wanted them to be happy- truly happy.

* * *

Omake time!!!

**_Gashin: Artistic Insticts_**

_Scales_

* * *

Sakura tilted her head as she thought of something, "Hey Dei…"

Deidara looked up from where he was lying down as gave her a quizzical look, "What, yeah?"

Sakura, who had been sitting on the couch looked over at him with a thoughtful look.

"I was just thinking…"

Deidara grabbed his crutch and pulled himself up. He still grunted as he pulled his body to a standing position and leaned against the crutch.

"Thinking about what, yeah?" He asked as he neared the couch.

"Yesterday, when I was pulling you into the bathroom-"

"More like picked me up and forced me in, yeah." Deidara said with a snarl.

"-you seemed rather light." Sakura finished her thought like he had not interrupted.

"Light?" Deidara asked with an arching eyebrow.

"Well, I'm a medic. I can usually tell somebody's weight just by lifting them. Not their exact weight, but if they are too light or too heavy for their weight average."

Deidara didn't like where this was going. He knew he had lost weight. That much had become apparent to him, but he didn't tell her because of what she might do. He paled slightly and he took a step back.

"Really, yeah?"

"Yeah," Sakura said as she turned to look at him, "I have a scale in my bathroom, let's weigh you."

"No, yeah," Deidara deadpanned as he turned around began to hobble away.

Sakura just grabbed the back of his shirt from where she sat and tugged.

"What to you mean no?" She asked with a hint of annoyance on her face.

"No," He simply said as he tried to continue moving.

He broke free of her grasp for a second, but she all too soon had gotten up and grabbed his shoulder firmly. He scowled at her, but inside he was rather nervous- though she was not going to know that.

"I'm not asking you Deidara," She huffed as she tried to redirect him, "I'm telling you to come into the bathroom and get on the scale."

"And I'm telling you no, yeah," He snapped.

"Like hell you are!"

Deidara tried to break away from her grasp, but her grip was too strong. He began cursing loudly though when she wrapped her arm around his waist again and picked him up off the ground.

"Darn it no! I don't want to be weighed, yeah!" Deidara yelled at her as he kicked his legs and swung the crutch at her head.

"To freaking bad! Stop acting like a five year old!" Sakura retorted as she dodged the crutch, "and watch where you swing that thing!"

She couldn't believe that they started fighting about something so trivial. She managed to bring him into the bathroom, having taken away the crutch after he had smacked her in the head, and placed him on the scale. He, being the little bugger that he was, managed to get off and was hopping out of the room.

Sakura sighed as she checked her weight before heading out the door and catching Deidara, who hadn't gone far on one leg and carried him back in. She had almost dropped him when he used his hand-mouths to nip at her, but she held onto his waist, clenching on of his hips as she tried to steady him. He was swinging his legs and yelling rather angrily as she stepped on the scale while holding him, subtracting her weight and discovering his.

"Deidara…" Sakura hissed as she looked up at his face.

He stopped struggling as he realized she had discovered it. He could feel his face losing its color as he looked into her angry expression.

"Yeah," He said softly, a rather big change from what he just had been doing.

"Your 15 pounds under weight…" Was all she said as she tightened her grip around his waist.

He winced slightly before nodding, "I had figured something like that, yeah…"

"You. Are. So. Dead."

"…I figured that too… yeah…"

* * *

Sooooooo... How did you like it? How about the omake? It is from Gashin: Artistic Instincts and it is about the whole scale fiasco. Thought you might enjoy that for being such good readers! That and to ease your Gashin withdrawls (by the way it is like 16 or so reviews from hitting 100 reviews! (my goal))

I decided that all of you were amazing and should have another chapter once I hit over five reviews. Did I ever mention I like reviews?

So here are some things I would like you to answer:

**Did you like it?**

**Does it sound plausible the way I wrote and designed the story?**

**How many of you are already liking where this is going?**

**Anything special you want me to add later on?**

Here is the translations so far:

(Dat)_Tebayo: Naruto's japanese catch phrase... not sure it really means believe it._

_Kure-Tori: Clay bird_

_Shishou: master_

_obasan: Aunt_

_Baa-san or Baa-chan: old lady or grandma_

**Remember**: Deidara is a bit OOC but events form our personality and this one _definately_ formed his.

And forgive me!!! I didn't want to but I needed something that will make him how he is in later chapters!!!

Please tell me what you think so far!!

Ja Ne

Volleys-chan


	3. The Cherry Blossom and the Clay Bird

Hello peoples!

Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! You guys are really helpful! So just to clear it up, Naruto says Dattebayo or 'tebayo. In english is was replaced with the yelling of the word "BELIVE IT!" Ugh... I would prefer him to yell "DATTEBAYO!" Maybe it is just because I like the japanese version better. Though they do curse a lot, I still would watch that one anyday. I mean unlike english dubbing, they don't change the voice actors. I mean have you ever heard one piece? They changed voice actors and it annoyed the _heck_ out of me! And Pokemon? I know you probably don't watch it anymore, but one day I came across it and what caught my attention was Jame's voice... then Jessie's and even Meowths and I just stared as I listened, because it sounded weird....

Ranting over thank you see me next time to hear about my rant about the nonexisting council from Naruto.

To my reviewers:

Thanks for the wonderful encouragement and thanks to some of you for breaking down my chapter and telling me what you thought. I do encourage helpful flamers, anything to make the story better. Keep reviewing and I will update again in about a week or two. When finals are over and I am back at home... Gotta love a college that gets out in the month of May!

So here it is!

Enjoy!!

* * *

_**Kure-tori**_

Chapter 3

_The Cherry Blossom and the Clay Bird  


* * *

_

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, yeah

* * *

**

Sakura was relieved when Deidara didn't cry out in his sleep. How embarrassing would that be if he woke up. She just sat in Tsunade's chair and pulled out a scroll she had been reading and relaxed. The scroll was a theory scroll. It was about chakra and how it worked in the body like chakra points, passage ways, and it even talked about how an unborn child's chakra could affect the mother. It was really interesting. She would have continued reading, but she heard Deidara shifting on the couch, stretching and letting out a small grunt.

"Hey, your awake," Sakura said as she rolled up the scroll and got up.

Deidara snapped his head to look at her before scanning the room for Tsunade or maybe even Shizune.

"Where's Tsunade-obasan?" Deidara asked as he swung his legs over the side of the couch and moved into the sitting position.

"Out for a walk," Sakura said gently as she approached him, "She told me to take you to get something to eat."

Deidara looked slightly nervous as he glanced around. She knew he wasn't trusting of her yet and most likely felt a little defenseless. But at the same time she could see that he was fighting with himself to come to a decision.

_'Just go darn it, you're an elite ninja!'_ He thought to himself, _'you use to walk the streets alone all the time.'_

But that was before the incident.

_'She's a girl, yeah! It's not like she is going to attack! Get a hold of yourself Deidara!'_ He yelled to himself as he looked at the couch.

"I promise I don't bite," Sakura said with a smile, before looking at his hands, "I do, however, wonder about you."

"Hey," Deidara snapped as he made a face, "Go ahead and judge me just because I have a freaky kekkei genkai, yeah!"

"Oh," she said with a laugh, "I bet you tell people you bite all the time. It's just too good of a joke to pass up! And they aren't freaky, their cool."

Deidara just blinked as he looked at her inquisitively, "What? Cool, yeah?"

"Of course, I mean maybe that's just the medic side of me talking, but I think that it's cool."

Deidara couldn't help but lift his lips into a cocky smirk as he looked at the pinkette, "Well thanks, yeah. But I gotta ask… Is that your real hair color?"

Sakura rolled her eyes before letting them rest on the blond, "Yes, blondie, it is. My parents genes sort of mixed together strangely and my hair is the outcome. If you really must know, it's not really pink. It just looks pink."

He blinked a couple times as he scrutinized her hair, "Really now, yeah? Cause I ain't seeing it."

Sakura sighed as she shook her head at his bad grammar. If she was going to be around it, she would eventually start correcting him. But for now she had to prove her point. She sat down next to him, pretending she didn't see or feel him flinch and pulled a couple strands of hair up with her fingers.

"See for yourself," she said with a grin.

He just stared as her for a minute, before looking up at her. She reassured him it was fine and he slowly brought his hands up to touch her hair. It wasn't the softest, but that might have been because she was a tomboy. It was apparent to him that she would rather spar then care about her appearance. He began to pull the tresses apart until he had just a couple strands on hair on his fingertips. It was rather amazing that there were deep red color lying right next to the silvery, translucent white stand.

"So it really isn't pink," Deidara said as he released the hair and put his hands back to where they had been before hand.

"Nope, but I don't care to tell everyone that over and over so I just nod and say it is. I use to care so much about it, but now days I just need it out of the way." She said as she stood up again, "So how about getting some food?"

He bit his lip and looked away for a minute before moving his gaze onto her eyes and nodding, "Sure, yeah. I'll buy."

"Hey," She said as she waved her hands in front of her, "I didn't mean that you had to buy. I can pay for my own and I-"

"-Don't worry about it, yeah. I have plenty of money. Pays to be a informant of someone as nice as Tsunade-obasan." Deidara said with a playful smirk, "You pick because I have no clue where a good restaurant is."

"What do you want to eat?"

"Actually ramen sounds good to me," Deidara said as he got up, "I haven't eaten all day, yeah."

"Come on," Sakura said as she headed to the door, "If we are lucky Naruto won't be there."

She heard a faint puff and turned around to see a young female blond standing where Deidara had been, tying her hair back in a braid and leaving her bangs to obscure her left side. Her eyes deeply outlined with black and her lips were pink and her skin tone was sun kissed like her hair. She was wearing the same thing that Deidara had been wearing, which was a slate blue jeans with a tear at one of the knees and nice black boots as well as a mesh shirt under a black tee.

"I'm good to go," a light feminine voice came from her mouth.

"Wow," Sakura gaped, "I would never have guessed that you were you, Deidara-san."

"Rei," Deidara corrected, "I am to be called Kure-tori Rei."

"Alright Rei-chan," Sakura beamed as she led them out.

Deidara kept close to her as the exited the room and by the time they had exited the building, Deidara already had an hand around her arm looking rather nervous.

"You okay Rei?" Sakura asked as she looked at him worriedly.

"I'm sorry, yeah," Deidara apologized, forcing a smile on his female face, "I just…"

"It's okay, you don't have to explain. Tsunade-shishou already explained it." Sakura said as she waved it off.

Deidara looked down at the ground, looking rather ashamed of himself. Sakura just patted his head and gave him a smile.

"Don't worry about it. It's not your fault, you know? Some things, no matter how painful, just aren't avoidable." Sakura said with a rueful smile.

"Did something bad happen to you, yeah?" Deidara asked as he looked into her eyes.

"My family died five months ago. It was some scheme to get back at me for curing a noble family's young daughter of some serious poison." Sakura said with a sigh, "I didn't leave my house for two weeks until my friend Ino dragged me out. After a while it wasn't as hard…"

"Sorry about your family, yeah," Deidara said, giving her arm a slight squeeze, "Must be hard, yeah."

"You didn't go through something so easy yourself," Sakura said as she patted his hand, "I was prepared in kunoichi classes for that. The males aren't prepped for it since no one thinks it would happen."

"Yeah, neither did my classes. I picked most of things like seduction and undercover work up through trial and err, yeah… a lot of err. This whole henge was designed by," He lowered his voice for a second, "Orochimaru. Hence the seal that activates and deactivates it, yeah."

"Wow, can you change your henged appearance?"

Deidara just shook his head no, "Too complicated and I'm not one to tamper with something I don't understand, yeah."

Sakura and him continued their conversation. Deidara still nervously clung to her as they entered the restaurant.

"Ohiyo!" Sakura greeted Ayame and her father, Teuchi.

"Ohiyo, Sakura-san!" Ayame greeted her happily, "Whose your friend?"

"Kure-tori Rei," Sakura said as she pulled Deidara's hand off of her bicep, "She just moved here."

"Welcome Rei-san, what can I get you?" Ayame chirped as she held her notepad up high.

Deidara just sat down and looked at the options, "Miso, please, yeah."

"Chicken, please," Sakura said as she sat down, "Has Naruto already shown up for his twenty-something bowls of noodles?"

Deidara just looked at her strangely as Ayame and Teuchi laughed.

"No, not yet," Ayame said with a small smile, "But he will be here before long."

"Want to stay?" Sakura whispered to him.

"I'm fine, yeah," Deidara said with a smirk, "Plus, he won't even know who the heck I am."

Teuchi handed them their bowls of ramen with a smile and watched as the two picked up their chopsticks to begin eating. Everything was quiet as they ate, Deidara just trying to get a feel for Sakura. He found her aura calming and somewhat like Tsunade's and Shizune's. He was able to be at ease with her rather then stressed like he was with Tsunade's ANBU.

Perhaps, he considered, it was because he was use to being chased by hunter ANBU and that his senses were screaming for him to run. He was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard Sakura's voice.

"Rei-chan," She said as she looked at his hand holding the chopsticks, "That's not the right way of holding your chopsticks. How do you even eat like that?"

Deidara just looked down at his hand and looked over at hers, puzzled by what she was saying. Yeah, Sakura was holding hers differently, but how was that any better.

"Here," Sakura said as she set down her chopsticks and gently grabbed his hand, repositioning the chopsticks, "That's how you're suppose to hold them."

He looked down at the chopsticks and played with them for a second before looking at Sakura to see how she used hers, mimicking her instantly and continued eating without a word.

Sakura was rather surprised at how fast he had corrected himself. When Naruto was still only 12, she had corrected the problem, but it had taken many months of arguing over why it was wrong and constant reminders. Deidara was suppose to be cocky and prideful just like Naruto so it amazed her that he would even take any form of reproof from her.

She was about to ask him about it when she noticed Deidara tense and something slam onto her back wrapping her up in a bone crushing hug.

"Sakura-chan!" The blonde haired jinchuuriki greeted her loudly.

"Hello Naruto-kun," She sighed as she looked over her shoulder, "Hello Sai-kun."

"Hello hag," Sai greeted with his usual tactlessness.

"She's not a hag, yeah," Deidara growled as he glared at the ex-Root member, "She's not ugly either."

Sakura was surprised at Deidara's statement. She was use to Sai calling her that and had never had someone other then Naruto reprimand her other teammate.

"Good to see you too, bird," Sai said with a fake grin on his face, "I see your face isn't as sickly pale as it was this morning. Did you put on make up to make yourself easier on the eyes?"

Deidara seemed ruffled by the comment, but Sakura, who had finally gotten Naruto off of her, spoke before the bomber could explode.

"Sai!" Sakura yelled in a warning tone, "be nice or you'll find yourself shoved half-way through a wall."

The boy frowned slightly as he tilted his head in a confused manner, "Did I say something wrong hag? I only said what I have observed."

"You have no tact," Sakura grumbled as she threw an apologetic look Deidara's way, "Sorry. He's still learning manners. Unlike you, he has yet to pick those up."

"I see, yeah," Deidara said before going back to his ramen, instantly correcting his movements with the chopsticks when he noticed he was doing it wrong.

"Oi, Sakura-chan," Naruto blinked as he looked at Deidara, "Whose the girl?"

Deidara instantly began cracking up as he banged the hand that wasn't holding the chopsticks on the counter and putting his head down so they couldn't see his face. Sakura just shook her head slowly with a sigh as Sai insulted his intelligence.

"Your brain is almost as big as your-"

"-Shut up Sai," Sakura growled as she looked at Naruto, "Tsunade talked to us about this, this morning. This is her _cousin_ that is living with her, _Kure-tori Rei_… _remember_?"

"Baka, yeah," Deidara said with a wicked smirk on his female face, "I can't believe you haven't been caught. You are really making me think that prodigy was an _idiot_, yeah."

That made Naruto remember. He was about to throw Deidara's cover away, but Sakura had already predicted what her loud mouth companion would do and had shoved her hand over his mouth and whispered something in his ear to calm him down.

Deidara just hurried to finish his food and looked over to Sakura with a eyebrow raised. She just brought the bowl to her lips and quickly finished it. She was about to pay for hers when she noticed Deidara already getting his change back.

"I'm ready to go," Deidara announced to Sakura as he got up and tugged on her arm.

"Give me a minute to pay," Sakura said, forgetting Deidara's earlier comment.

"I already handled it, yeah. No worries, just get me back to Tsunade-obasan." Deidara said as he tugged again.

"Come back soon," Ayame said with a wave.

"I will," Deidara beamed with a fake, but real looking smile on his face.

Sakura obediently got up and began to lead Deidara out when she heard Naruto's voice.

"Hey wait up," He called as he sped to catch up, "I'm going with you, tebayo."

"Fine, yeah. I just want to go back to Tsunade-obasan," Deidara snapped as he looked away.

Naruto just smirked as he nodded, giving Deidara a large pat on the back. Sakura jumped when Deidara's hand released her and he seemed to have disappeared. Naruto and her both exchanged confused glances before Sakura began to yell angrily.

"Naruto! What did you do?" She yelled as she grabbed his shirt and shook him hard.

"Nothing! I just patted him on the back, dattebayo! I swear I didn't do anything other then that Sakura-chan." Naruto yelped in fear.

She immediately let go and looked around to find him. He had already told her he didn't like being alone and if Naruto had spooked him, she didn't know where he would disappear to.

"Jeez, I just touched him, it wasn't like I was attacking!" Naruto said as he straightened out his clothes.

"_She,_" Sakura corrected him since currently he was henged as a woman, "almost got killed remember. _Almost_. As in enough to subconsciously make her afraid of unexpected contact. Don't touch her unless she knows you are going to."

Sakura looked around again, flaring up her chakra a little bit to see if she got a response. One of the ANBU who were watching Deidara actually graced them with appearing on the telephone pole near them and pointing in the direction that Deidara was. He was on the roof of the building two blocks down trying not to have a panic attack.

Sakura didn't waste anytime dashing to his side. She made sure he knew she was there before using a little of her healing jutsu to calm his down from his 'fight or flight' instincts. Naruto appeared only moments later with a long winded apology.

"It's fine," Deidara said after listening for a moment, getting a grip, "I just wasn't expecting it… yeah."

"What did they do to make you freak out like that?" Naruto asked after Deidara had cut his speech short.

"Things I don't want to talk about," Deidara said in a low voice, "Not ever…"

Sakura gently touched Deidara's arm and slid her hand down to his hand as she gave a slight tug, "Come on, Tsunade-shishou will have a conniption if we aren't back soon. Her ANBU must have told her already."

The three of them made it back to the office room wordlessly as Tsunade breathed a heavy sigh in relief when she saw that Deidara was alright.

"Are you all right?" Tsunade asked as she looked him in the eyes.

By then he had already deactivated the henge and just put up with her mothering as he stared at the floor, nodding or shaking his head on occasion to whatever she said. Naruto was rather confused to why Deidara, the guy who had take out Gaara, had even reacted that way. Sure, it was scary being beaten to an inch of your life, but he had experienced it on several occasions. He knew that they were leaving out a major detail, but decided to let it go since Sakura seemed to know and was handling it.

"Well, let's head home," She said as she lightly touched Deidara's shoulder, "We'll be back in here soon enough."

Naruto noticed that every movement that Tsunade did that had physical contact with Deidara started out as a light gentle touch. She always did the same thing with him and for some unknown reason, he hated that she was treating Deidara like she treated him when he wasn't getting her mad.

He shook his head of those thoughts. He just didn't trust the guy yet since he was use to associating Akatsuki with the known members' faces. Zabuza and Haku had taught him to look at a persons heart, not their career as ninjas. No matter how hard it was going to be, he was going to give this guy a chance.

"Well goodnight you two. Naruto, walk Sakura home and then head home yourself."

"Hai," both of them chimed before heading out.

Tsunade shot a glance at Deidara whose eyes lingered to where Sakura had been standing.

"That wasn't so bad was it?" She asked with a kind smile on her face.

"No, it wasn't, yeah." Deidara said as he smirked at her, returning her gaze, "But next time you say you're gonna take a walk, don't hide under Shizune-nee-chan's desk and drink sake."

Tsunade just rolled her eyes as she lightly twacked the kid in the back of the head, "Shut up you brat, you would have waken up if I wasn't close by and freaked."

"Ha ha ha, funny Baa-chan," Deidara growled.

Once again, Deidara found himself clasping his hand over his heart and he forced himself to calm down after dodging her fist. That was it, next time he made sure she had a kunai. Her punches were scary.

* * *

Did I ever mention I like reviews? I am making it my goal to try to get at least 100 reviews ASAP because I discovered (though I find this dumb) That the more reviews you have, the more other people will read it because they grade stories on:

A: The author's popularity (If they have read on of the other stories and liked it)

B: If they have not heard of you before, how many reviews you have... grrr...

C: How many words and chapters there are and compare that to how many reviews the person gets.

...

Yeah it's dumb, but usually if they have those factors, then the other readers know at least it has some good qualities to it.

I am one of those people... If the story has like five chapters and only 1 review... well I am not going to read it over the one that 20 with two chapters.

I know I am bad, but I like good stories and I don't like suffering through a story badly written.

...

But forgive... Got on another tangent. I will rant about it on my profile cause I can! Read about it if you want!

So here are some things I would like you to answer:

**Did you like it?**

**Does it sound plausible the way I wrote and designed the story?**

**How many of you are already liking where this is going?**

**Is Deidara and Sakura's relationship good so far? As in not going too fast?**

**Naruto's acceptance? Was that too quick?**

**Anything _special_**** you want me to add later on?**

Here is the translations so far:

(Dat)_Tebayo: Naruto's japanese catch phrase... not sure it really means believe it._

_Kure-Tori: Clay bird_

_Shishou: master_

_obasan: Aunt_

_Baa-san or Baa-chan: old lady or grandma_

**Remember**: Deidara is a bit OOC but events form our personality and this one _definately_ formed his.

Please tell me what you think so far!!

Ja Ne

Volleys-chan


	4. The Medic's Nindo

Once again! Hello to all my readers!

Yes, I have been getting these out rather quickly but as I said, they are already written and posting them gets my head out of the depression known as Finals. (F*** I never actually learned sh**)... Yeah... that is what I feel like...

Someone suggested that I rewrite the whole Sakura crying scene... So I did, because they had good points like: She just randomly begins to cry. Deidara is too fast to comfort her. I meant it to be a while until he did, but forgot to.

So, because everyone said that Deidara wasn't OOC, I will remove that reminder from the bottom. No long rants today, just getting right to the story!

For those who are preparing for finals: Good luck.

To my reviewers:

Wow... I picked up some very thorough people! I like all your observations! I think that I will add a couple of the suggestions because some of them were awesome ideas! I hope that you guys will continue to post a review and thanks again!

So here it is!

Enjoy!!

* * *

_**Kure-tori**_

Chapter 4

_The Medic's Nindo  


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_

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, yeah

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Tsunade almost didn't believe it when once again, she had knocked on Deidara's room door and found him in the bathroom puking again.

"I thought you were feeling better," Tsunade said as she found the boy leaning over the toilet, terrified to move.

He emptied his guts again, before pulling himself up and against the wall, shivering and nauseated looking. He just looked at her with weary eyes as his hand, trembling, flushed the toilet.

"So did I," He croaked, "I was fine last night, but I felt horrible this morning."

Tsunade approached him and felt his head. It was warm again. A faint flush decorating his face and he looked ready to pass out.

"Let me go get you some more of that medicine. You're staying here today," Tsunade stated as she went to leave.

"No," He weakly croaked, "I'll be fine."

She knew he just didn't want to be left alone, even if her ANBU were there. She looked at him and sighed as she shook her head no before exiting the room. She knew he would have followed, but she could hear him heaving the bile from his stomach into the toilet again. She went to her kitchen and grabbed the medicine out of her cabinet and thought a way around Deidara's small phobia of being alone.

It had to be someone who he already seemed to accept. She ruled out Shizune since she needed her at the office, so who could she send that wouldn't really be put out by it.

There was only one girl she knew that Deidara seemed at ease about. She smirked as she finished preparing the medicine and brought it back to Deidara.

"Drink it," Tsunade said to the slumped figure, sitting against the wall waiting for his stomach to empty itself again.

He just shot her a pleading look. Still obviously put out by her making him stay alone. She held the glass that she had put it in out for the boy to grab and made no movements until he had downed the stuff and was drinking a glass of water to help move the medicine down his throat better.

"As I said, you are going to sat here, but I am not leaving you here alone," Tsunade finally said.

"You can't miss work; it builds up remember, yeah?" Deidara said in a still hoarse voice, but not as bad as before the water.

"I'm not staying here," Tsunade said as she helped the boy stand up and led him to his bed, "I'm going to ask Sakura to watch you."

"But doesn't she have work, yeah?" Deidara argued as he lied down on his bed.

"_She_ works for me, more so then other ninja. Sakura won't mind at all anyways, she seemed to get along fine with you yesterday."

"But the Kyuu-Naruto doesn't like her being around me, I can tell."

"Give it up," Tsunade said as she pulled the covers onto him, "You aren't winning. I'll wait till she's here before I leave, now go to sleep."

Deidara just grumbled for a minute before sleep overtook him. Tsunade just sighed as she felt his forehead again, still as warm as before. He was so obstinate at times, but so was Naruto. If Naruto ever gave Deidara a chance, they might really be good buddies and Deidara needed more male contact to calm him down a bit.

Maybe since Naruto and Sakura were both orphans, they would move in with her and Deidara. It certainly would help with Deidara opening up and even allow her to help Naruto grow up a bit. He was still childish and needed some parental guidance that a lazy teacher and perverted old man could not offer.

A woman's touch. No… A_ mother's_ touch.

Sakura would probably not comply at first, but eventually she might give in to the idea since she was use to having a family. That might heal Deidara and Naruto to have a more family like environment.

They all needed a mother at the moment. Naruto had gone his whole life without one; who knew how long Deidara raised himself; and Sakura had always been like a daughter to her –yet she was still only 16 and needed a mother figure.

Tsunade made a face as she thought about what that entailed, _'Great, I can't drink in front of them…'_ She smirked at her second though, _'Then again, they should be taught how to hold their liquor since it might come up one day…'

* * *

_

Sakura awakened to the banging on her door. She groaned as she got up, throwing off her covers and grabbing her silk robe and threw it on as she headed for the door. The apartment was cold and empty, making Sakura almost want to cry. She hated being alone and that was why she preferred to busy herself with missions, hours at the hospital, and helping Tsunade with her work- anything from being alone.

She opened the door and tried hard not to look like she was glaring, but failed miserably. The ANBU had a cat mask, which she instantly realized made him a member of Tsunade's personal ANBU.

"What do you need, Neko–san?" Sakura asked with a yawn.

"Tsunade-sama has requested you. You are to go to the Senju complex to receive further orders," The ANBU said before bowing a goodbye and disappearing.

Sakura still muttered a thanks since she knew he would probably still be close enough to hear and shut the door. She went through her morning routine and soon was at the door again, fully clothed with her gear strapped on and still tired looking, and left her apartment.

She had a nagging feeling that it had something to do with Deidara or she would be heading to the office instead of the complex. Sakura's eyes filled with worry as she sped up slightly. She had only known him for one day, but something was tugging at her heart whenever he looked at her with those ocean blue eyes that were filled with brokenness. It was the same look Naruto had. Both hid it well, but she was good at reading eyes.

_'Thanks to Sasuke and Sai,'_ She thought with a smirk, _'Hardest guys to read, but if you can read an Uchiha and an assumed emotionless jerk, you can read anyone.'_

She was taken from her thoughts when she arrived at the entrance of the complex and flared her chakra a bit before letting herself into the large compound. She entered the front yard and walked quickly to the huge, old Japanese mansion and knocking this time.

It didn't take long before Tsunade answered the door and ushered her inside.

"Good," the older woman said, "You're here."

"Ohiyo, shishou. What do you need me for so early in the morning."

"Early? Sakura, I get up at this time to start working on my paperwork." Tsunade said with a frown, "This isn't early."

"I just got back from sleeping a little different hours. I've not yet adjusted to my regular schedule. I was staying up till three and waking at eight so I could stay guard." Sakura explained while she yawned, "I'll be back on schedule soon though."

"As long as you actually do, gaki," Tsunade said as she ruffled hair with a spunky grin, "Now do you want to hear why I sent for ya?"

"Of course, does it have to do with Deidara-san?" Sakura asked as she returned the grin.

"He still has a stomach bug," Tsunade said with a frown, "I already gave him some medicine, but I want him to stay here which-"

"-he won't do unless someone he is comfortable with is here," Sakura finished for her, "I know he slept while I was in the room with him, but that's probably because you were hiding under Shizune's desk drinking sake in the next room."

Tsunade made a face as she looked down at her apprentice, "You two are show offs. I barely had my chakra unmasked just so the ANBU knew where I was."

"I'm sensitive to chakra. And what do you mean 'you two'?"

"Deidara said the same thing last night," Tsunade grumbled as she looked at the floor.

"Sorry Shishou," Sakura said with a fake rueful look.

"Just say you'll stay around the building and listen for him. He isn't much trouble, he just might need some food or medicine depending on his stomach. He's taken to you very well from what my ANBU report."

"Alright then," Sakura said with a nod, "I'll stay. So where is Deidara-san?"

"Come on, I'll show you around a bit before I leave," Tsunade said as she motioned her apprentice to follow.

Sakura had never been in the Senju complex before and it really blew away the Hyuuga complex without even trying. Then again the first hokage had control of the wood element, which probably assisted in the creation of the old traditional styled Japanese mansion.

The kitchen had a common room attached to it that looked mainly unused as did the kitchen. It was very pretty though and dust free. Tsunade must have had genin clean it on occasion.

The library, which Tsunade was showing her as a way of entertainment since she said, "The brat won't be up much and if he tries to get up, just punch is lights out." It was a rather disturbing thing to hear a woman that seemed to be his caretaker, but that was how Tsunade showed her affection. The library was stuffed with textbooks and scrolls that Sakura had been looking for and she swore to defiantly come back.

She was also, out of courtesy, shown where all the bathrooms were that weren't attached to a room. She noticed that all of them had different themes and colors just like she guessed the rooms did.

Finally, she was shown Deidara's room. Tsunade was being quiet about opening the door, but she gave up being super quiet when Deidara cracked an eye open and stared at her with a sleepy gaze.

"Feeling better?" She asked hopefully.

Deidara just shook his head no and he buried himself further into the pillow.

"Well at least you stopped throwing up," Tsunade sighed as she felt his forehead again.

"Nothing left _to_ throw up, yeah," Deidara mumbled as he gave a shiver.

"Well your sense of humor survived," Tsunade said with a small smile, "Sakura's here so I'm going to leave now. She already knows what your allowed to do and what you aren't so don't even think about telling her otherwise or I'll castrate you when I get back."

Deidara just pulled his lips up into a smirk before closing his eyes again and falling back asleep. Sakura suppressed the urge to squeal at how adorable Deidara looked all wrapped up in the blankets with his hair down and sleeping quietly.

_'Curses, still have a bit of the fan girl left over from Sasuke,' _She thought to herself.

**_'Want me to squash it?'_**

_'Yes, as best as you can. I don't want to accidently jump Deidara on an old fan girl impulse.'_

**_'Got it. Cause if you did that, where would we be with him? No where. He'd be to afraid of us to get within then feet of us.'_**

_'Thanks Inner.'_

Sakura snapped out of her conversation with herself as Tsunade walked over to her and closed the door quietly.

"So feel free to do whatever you feel like. Same rules as yesterday about him crying out in his sleep, but with the way he's been feeling he probably will only take small catnaps. Around lunch ask him if he's hungry and if he isn't-"

"Just get him some broth to drink. If he's hungry, some crackers or something easy on the stomach as well as broth. I know Tsunade, I'm a medic _and _your apprentice." Sakura said with a grin, "Now go to work so you can get back ASAP like you want to."

Sakura practically began to shove Tsunade through the door as she reminded her of things she already knew, like how to start the stove, not to have Naruto over because he was loud, and to stay out of the sake.

By the time she had gotten her out the door, Sakura already felt tired, but she just brushed herself off and headed to the library to look through the scroll to find something about the theory of chakra.

* * *

Sakura jumped slightly when she heard the door open slightly. She turned to see Deidara standing there looking weary and drained, almost ready to fall over. He had the same down blanket from the day before and a pillow in his right hand, dipping close to the floor.

"Deidara-san," Sakura yipped as she set the scroll down, "Tsunade said you shouldn't get up from bed."

"Sorry, I-I… I needed to get out of the room for a bit," He said as he glanced at the corner of the room, "Could I maybe just lie on the couch in here, yeah?"

Sakura chewed on her lip as she looked at the couch. It didn't look very comfortable at all so she just collected her scrolls and walked up to Deidara, "How about I come into your room and read there?"

He nodded at the idea and soon turned and shuffled back into his room, Sakura keeping close by him incase he faltered or fell. He was strong though and made it back into the room before sitting down on the bed, pulling the blanket out from under him, placing the pillow back to where it belonged, and swung his legs under the sheets, resting his head on the pillow.

Sakura chose to set the scrolls and books on the desk that was in the room and glanced over at Deidara.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better, yeah. Still a little sick to my stomach," He responded as he pulled the blanket over his head but kept his face viewable.

"It's almost lunch time, I can go make you some food."

"Not hungry," Deidara said as he buried his head into the pillow.

"Tsunade said to get at least some broth into you whether you're hungry or not, so I'll just go make some, neh?"

"Please don't leave, yeah," Deidara said as he turned his head to look at her.

Sakura smiled as she preformed the single hand-sign. With a poof, a shadow clone appeared and smiled at Deidara.

"Please go make some broth," the real Sakura ordered with a respectful bow.

Sure it was to herself, but she had a habit of doing that when asking for something. Not in an emergency, but when politeness was needed in the non dire situations.

"It's physical?" Deidara asked amazed as he stared at the retreating body with his left eye, the right being closed.

"Yes, technically it's forbidden because of the amount of chakra required, but Naruto taught me when I asked it of him. It's good for these sort of tasks as well as training exercises. It sends all memories back to the caster and helps gain experience faster." Sakura explained as she sat down and pulled up a scroll.

"… If it does what the caster wants… then why doesn't Tsunade-obasan use them when doing her paperwork, yeah?" Deidara asked as he pushed himself up a bit with his elbow.

Sakura just stared at him for a minute, wide eyed and dumbfounded before she could find her voice.

"I don't know. She probably never thought about it that way."

"Would save her a lot of time at the office, yeah. More time to do what she wants to do like training you, teaching Naruto-san a couple things, and training Kakashi to be on time, yeah."

"How do you know that," Sakura asked with a confused look.

Deidara smirked as he laid back down, "I've been here for almost three months, yeah. I've heard endless stories about you and Naruto-san and Kakashi and ero-Jiraiya. Shizune-nee-san and Tsunade-obasan consider you and Naruto like family. She told me she's getting use to Sai's bluntness, but I don't think I could stand it very long, yeah."

Sakura was literally touched. She knew how she felt about Tsunade- especially after her mother's passing and then the rest of her family's murder- was a mother figure, but for Tsunade to feel the same way about her, even Shizune, made her feel rather happy. She couldn't help but let some tears escape as she gave a quiet sob.

That freaked out Deidara, "Are you crying, yeah?"

He looked panicked as he sat up almost ready to get out of his bed if she hadn't put up her hand signaling him to stay.

"Sorry, I'm not sad," Sakura said as she dried her tears, "That just really touched me. I told you about my family's passing, right?"

"Yeah," Deidara said as he looked at her warily, lying back down but facing her; paying attention to her words.

She could help but notice that he listened to everything she had to say. She noticed he was rather attentive to what people were saying around him, but then again, he did tell her he learned things by trial and err. She deduced that he learned things by talking and listening.

"My mother had died shortly after I had turned 14. That as around the time I became Tsunade's apprentice. She took me under her wing and taught me so much. She's like a mother to me, but I didn't know I was like family to her. I didn't morn after my mother very long. I busied myself with work and learning and the hospital hours, but after the incident that killed off my father, my aunt, my grandfather and grandmother… It sorta all came at me all at once and I mentally lost it." She stopped for a minute to even her breathing even though the memories still were fresh in her mind, tears had been slowly coming down though she fought her emotions to continue her story, "I had actually been forced to watch them kill off each of my family members and set my house to burn. I barely made it out, if it hadn't been for Shizune… I would have died…"

She began to sob after a moment, burying her face into her hands as she tried to continue her story. However she couldn't. Her throat constricted itself as she gasped for air to calm herself down. She hadn't even heard Deidara move as she fought to get control. But she hadn't really been able to cry like this.

She had wanted to keep everything semi-normal for her team so that they didn't worry. Naruto was always worrying for her and she would probably kill herself if he made her another promise that would burden him. And Kakashi never took death well. He played it up well, but with each death of someone he knew he was always an hour later then his already late arrival. Sai wouldn't even know how to react; he didn't do good with emotions. Even though he acted the same, she could tell when he was freaking out.

She flinched slightly when she felt Deidara's strong arms lift her up off the chair and sat her in his lap on his bed, hugging her tightly. He didn't do much more but rest his head on top of hers as she continued to cry. Sometimes rubbing her back if it sounded like she needed it, but other then that, he just held her in his arms. As to say: you're not alone, I'm here for you. And it comforted her.

"But that was only the start," She finally continued when her breathing allowed, "I had a mental break down and lost it for a while. I even had to be locked up in a suicidal proof room! Tsunade-shishou had to watch me as I struggled to find reason to live! She covered it up well… telling people I was to be left alone for a while in my new apartment… but only special ANBU knew the truth… Ino… she's my best girl friend… found out from her father and I… I don't know how, but she snapped me out of it.... She told me that there were still people out there that cared about me and I was being selfish for thinking only about my feelings. I had forgotten about my friends and teachers who still cared. I was hurting them being like that…" Sakura sniffed as she dried her eyes again, calming down, "I was hurting Naruto and Sai and Shizune and Tsuande and Kakashi and Ino and everyone else just because I was too wrapped up thinking about me… I was able to go home that day… I'm just glad that she had brought me back…" Sakura looked up to look at Deidara's sorrow-filled eyes, drying off the remaining of her tears, "Sorry for crying. I didn't mean to make you upset."

"Sorry, yeah… It must have been hard…" He said with a couple tears falling from his face.

Sakura pulled out a handkerchief -that she had been to lazy to pull out for herself from her pouch- and wiped away his tears.

"Don't cry. I'm fine now," Sakura said as she smiled, "I have a lot of friends that help me remember my nindo. To heal those I hold special. If I failed to heal myself, I failed to heal them. Medic rule number 1: you can't heal your teammates if you are injured yourself."

"Yeah," Deidara said with a small smile.

It was then that her clone came in with a large cup of broth. Sakura gave Deidara a small hug and stood up to receive the cup, her clone dispelling with a quiet 'pop'. She looked into his eyes, noticing the bags under them, seeing as he got a grip on his emotions.

"Your tired," Sakura said as she felt his head to feel it was warm, "and not feeling well. So drink this and go back to sleep. Either I'll be here or Tsunade will be back when you wake."

He just nodded as he took the cup and began to drink it, wincing slightly at the heat, but drank it nonetheless. Sakura sat back down on the chair and observed the older teen. The way he held it securely with both hands and pushed it up to his face before giving it a couple short blows of air to cool it down and then greedily taking large gulps of it, reminded Sakura of a child. He wasn't even aware how child like he was when he stared at the cup with his naturally observant eyes thinking of whatever was on his mind.

"So you live alone, yeah?" Deidara asked, staring up at her and breaking the silence.

"Yes, I actually don't like it very much, but I sorta make sure I'm never really stuck at home. I'm not as clean as Sai, but I'm no Naruto. He's such a messy guy, but then again most of his stuff is really old. I think he's had the couch since he was six."

"Do they live alone as well?"

"Sai was a ROOT agent so he was trained how to live alone. I really don't know how long he's had his apartment, but Naruto has had his crappy apartment since he was… I want to say 5? Because of the Kyuubi, people didn't want him in the orphanage… and no one wanted to adopt him… so the Sandaime gave him his apartment and an allowance to live off of till he became a ninja. He can be clean when he wants to be but usually is in such a rush that he leaves a mess behind."

"I see…" Deidara said as he finished off the last of the contents in the cup, "Thanks, yeah."

He lied back down, placing the cup on the floor. He glanced back at her for a moment before wrapping the covers around him. Sakura just smiled at him as she pulled out a scroll and began to read it. She couldn't help but feel closer to Deidara. She had never told anyone about her two weeks of insanity. It felt good to get it off her chest. Maybe one day she'd have the heart to tell Naruto and Sai and Kakashi, but for now only Tsunade, Shizune, Ino, and now Deidara knew.

"What are you reading, yeah?" Deidara asked in a quiet tone.

"Chakra. How it affects seal and jutsus. I was checking the theories about expecting kunoichis and if the child's chakra could interfere some how. I have also been studying charka paths and coils. They all are really interesting," Sakura replied as she glanced at his tired eyes, "you should be sleeping. You'll feel better if you do."

"You promise not to leave?"

"Only for bathroom breaks," She promised with a nod of her head.

He seemed to relax at that and finally nodded off to sleep. Sakura could only beam at his sleeping figure. He was so peaceful. She had yet to hear him cry out in his sleep, but she was okay if he did. She'd be there in a second to help comfort him if he did, like he did when she cried.

Sakura went back to her reading, totally at ease with the other person in the room. She didn't seemed fazed that he use to be an Akatsuki member or that he was known for blowing things up, because she had realized not to long ago that criminals were human too.

They needed friendship and people to lean on…

And maybe they just had something that needed to be healed as well…

She was never going to judge Deidara for his past. He had made up for them by helping Konoha, even if it was entirely selfish reasons, he had risked his life to do it. He had given up his dignity as well…

And because of that, she would always respect him.

The way he comforted her when she cried, allowed her to know he also was capable of feeling sympathy and sorrow. She would be his friend because of his compassion and companionship he had displayed to her.

He was her friend now and she wasn't going to give him up, just like Naruto, just like Sai, and just like Sasuke.

She had to smile at that.

* * *

Tsunade silently crept to Deidara's room door and gave a light knock. Her ANBU had informed her that Sakura was in there reading quietly. After about a second and a slight flare of her chakra, she entered the room.

"Hey," Sakura whispered, looking up from her current scroll, "You're back."

"Yeah," Tsunade nodded as she looked at the young pink haired girl, "Is he feeling any better?"

"He woke up and said he was hungry, so I fed his some soup and gave him a sandwich. He's temperature is normal again and he was able to keep the food down. However, he did end up falling asleep again," Sakura reported in her whisper as she looked over to Deidara.

"You don't need to whisper, I'm awake, yeah." A muffled voice said as Deidara cracked his right eye open a bit, "But thanks anyways."

"So you're feeling better, huh?" Tsunade said with a smirk on her face, "That's good to hear. Do anything interesting today?"

"We talked a bit," Sakura said with a grin, "Deidara-kun actually thought for a good idea for you."

Both Deidara and Tsunade were somewhat surprised at her calling him Deidara_-kun_. Sure, in his henged form she called him Rei-chan, but calling him Deidara-kun seemed to mean something more then when she called him Rei-chan.

"Well," Tsunade said looking down at Deidara, "What's this great idea of yours. Deidara?"

It took a minute before Deidara remembered what they were talking about, but soon he cracked a small smirk as he eyed her with an amused look.

"Shadow clones are physical clones right?" He started.

"Yeah," Tsunade said slowly, not catching his drift.

"Then why don't you use them to finish your paperwork, yeah? You'd get down a lot earlier," Deidara drawled.

"…"

"Tsunade-shishou?"

"…"

"Are you okay, Tsunade-obasan, yeah?"

"…"

"I'm getting worried," Sakura said as she glanced at Deidara.

"So am I, yeah."

"WHY DIDN'T ANYONE THINK OF THAT EARLIER!!!"

* * *

Did I ever mention I like reviews? My goal is still 100 reviews!

...

So here are some things I would like you to answer:

**Did you like it?**

**How many of you are already liking where this is going?**

**Is Deidara and Sakura's relationship good so far? As in not going too fast?**

**Did you like Sakura's history background? Does it work with the timeline?**

**Anything _special_**** you want me to add later on?**

Here is the translations so far:

(Dat)_Tebayo: Naruto's japanese catch phrase... not sure it really means believe it._

_Kure-Tori: Clay bird_

_Shishou: master_

_obasan: Aunt_

_Baa-san or Baa-chan: old lady or grandma_

Please tell me what you think so far!!

Ja Ne

Volleys-chan


	5. Putting Together the Pieces

Once again! Hello to all my readers!

Yay!!! Finals are over and I am free!!! Now... if only I can find a job... !*#&%

Someone suggested that I rewrite the whole Sakura crying scene... So I did, because they had good points like: She just randomly begins to cry. Deidara is too fast to comfort her. I meant it to be a while until he did, but forgot to.

So look back on that and reread the crying scene. Maybe it will much better then before.

For those who are still doing finals: Good luck.

To my reviewers:

I am so happy how responsive you guys are! I am glad that you like my writing. I hit 30 so I am releasing this chapter. 70 more to my goal!!!

So here it is!

Enjoy!!

* * *

_**Kure-tori**_

Chapter 5

_Putting Together the Pieces  


* * *

_

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, yeah

* * *

**

Sakura walked around the halls of the hospital, completely at ease. She was in her element and it made her all the more calm. People would ask for her thoughts and she would happily comply. Being the apprentice of the Hokage really made her quite the celebrity in the hospital, but for good reason.

Sakura was almost as good as the Hokage herself. She was also more available then the Hokage- who was become more and more available the more she used the shadow clones to finish her paperwork. She hadn't been asked to watch Deidara since a week ago, but she was hoping that was because he was feeling better.

A nurse walked up to her, disturbing her of her thoughts and handed her a file.

"I was told that you had a patient. She's in room 212." The woman explained, leaving shortly after receiving a thank you.

Sakura headed for the door, not having any other patients yet and was just beginning to glance at the file when she walked up to the door and opened it. Still keeping her eyes on the paper, scanning it for the patient's name.

"Hello…" She paused as she found the name and shot her gaze at her patient, "Rei-chan?"

Deidara was sitting on the examination chair looking rather embarrassed in his henge. He was already wearing the hospital gown –though she noticed he declined to take off his boxers- and was refusing to make eye contact as he started at his bare feet. Sakura closed the door, making sure that the room was secure before locking the door behind her.

"Deidara," She started, "Why are you here?"

"Tsunade-obasan wanted me to get checked out since I have been sick off and on with the same thing," He said in his female voice.

"She was right to send you in. That's very unnatural. Un-henge and let me look at your file. I'll need to give you a physical and a blood test," Sakura said as she sat down in the doctor's chair.

Deidara was grateful when he unhenged and watched as she flipped through his file. She went through the file, looking over the pictures of his attack to see if anything could be depicted from there, but found nothing. Other then the pictures, nothing was really in the file.

Sakura clicked a pen and began to ask questions.

"Sorry, Deidara, but your health folder here is a little…"

"I know it doesn't have anything other then my state of being when I got here in it, yeah," Deidara said with a nod, "Ask away."

She went through the basic questions like, 'Have you had the chicken pox?' and 'Have you ever smoked?' and even 'Have you been sexually active?' He glared at her a bit before answering. She knew that the last one had ruffled up some feathers, but she had to ask.

"Well," Sakura said as she pulled the stethoscope from around her neck, "Since you're wearing boxers, strip off the gown."

He looked a little rigid as he obeyed, but still he did it without putting up a fuss. Sakura just snapped on a pair of latex gloves before continuing.

"So how do you feel right now?" Sakura said as she put the device on correctly.

"Nauseas, yeah."

Sakura nodded as she put the cold hard metal on his skin. She felt him shiver as she listened for a moment, moving the stethoscope every 20 seconds to different areas of his chest. She moved on to his back and told him to breath in heavily, listened to his heart and if anything seemed out of place, and told him to breath out. She repeated it for several minutes before pulling back.

"Heart rate is normal and everything sounds fine," She said as she put the stethoscope back around her neck and jotted down a few notes in the file.

She quickly checked his reflexes, drew some blood for a blood test, and even quickly examined his kekkei genkai (with his permission first of course). Once she finished looking at his mouths, she quickly changed her gloves before standing right next to him again.

"Lie on your back please I want to feel your stomach for any lumps," Sakura said as she turned back to face him.

He did as she said and laid on his back, looking up to the ceiling with a slight blush. He really didn't want to be here, but at least it was Sakura taking care of him instead of a stranger. Actually, he didn't know if that was worse. Sakura neared him and looked at his stomach before beginning the process. From the pictures, she knew he had well toned abs and the perfect waist size, but as she looked at his stomach, she could only see a perfectly flat surface that was slightly pudgy.

"Deidara," Sakura said as she lightly touched his stomach, "Have you been overeating?"

"No, I barely eat anything, yeah. Just enough to get me by with this stomach bug," He replied as he looked at her curiously.

Sakura felt slightly cold as she used a diagnosis jutsu to search around his innards. Her eyes widened as she stopped the jutsu and gently rubbed her hand on his stomach.

"What's wrong," Deidara asked as he observed her strange behavior.

"How much do you usually weight?" Sakura asked as she looked at him with a firm gaze.

"About a 110 lbs, yeah," Deidara replied cautiously.

Usually Sakura would have scolded him about being under weight and even though it was only two pounds, that still meant he was two pounds under and immediately tell him to gain the weight. But not today. If her hunch was right, he was going to have to worry about something totally different.

"Get up," She ordered.

"Wha-" Deidara started, but was immediately cut off by her.

"Don't argue, just stand up and get on the scale," She said as she pointed to the scale in the corner of the room.

Deidara was going to complain, but if Sakura was anything like her teacher, he would receive bodily harm if he didn't comply. So he uncharacteristically clamped his mouth shut and got up and walked warily to the scale.

Once he was on the scale, Sakura immediately began to balance the weights. She almost cursed when the scale's top balanced perfectly.

"Your 115, that means that you have gained weight," Sakura said as she grabbed his arm and led him back to the bed before he could even grasp what was going on.

"I _gained_ weight?" He asked as she shoved him back onto the examination table.

"Yes," Sakura said as she began to press down on his stomach hard, "and your stomach is bloated. Something about your body seemed off as well when I preformed my diagnosis jutsu. I can't call in a Hyuuga nurse to help, so I need to go get Shishou."

"Is it that serious, yeah?" Deidara said as he paled even more then he already was.

"It might be," Sakura said as she went to the window and slightly opened up the shutters and cracked open the window.

"May I assist you in some way," Neko said as he appeared in front of the window.

"Go get Tsunade-shishou and tell her to come NOW!" Sakura said as she closed the window again.

She immediately turned back to Deidara, who –after her way of demanding Tsunade- looked very freaked out. Sakura knew that his stomach was probably tying itself up in knots, so she decided to sooth him a bit.

"Dei," She said gently as she patted his hand, "don't worry okay? I can be wrong. That's why I need Shishou, she'll tell me if I am right or wrong- which I can be."

"How often are you wrong," he asked, still looking upset.

Sakura bit her lip as she looked down at his hand, holding it in hers as she rubbed his knuckles with her thumb over and over. She wasn't afraid of his mouth, not even the least bit worried about it licking her. Then again she was wearing gloves.

"Not often," she finally said as she looked up at his eyes.

He looked ready to cry. He breathed in a shaky breath and held her hand in his hand tightly as he tired to grip the fact something might be highly wrong.

"Dei…" Sakura said as she touched his shoulder, "Tsunade-shishou might take a while getting here… So while we wait, I want to finish you exam, okay?"

Deidara just nodded as he just looked at the ceiling with a dead gaze. He didn't even notice her giving him a physical. She had looked at his ears, checked his eyes, his mouth and throat, and he didn't notice until she jabbed her thumbs into his throat and massaged.

He had jumped slightly at the rough contact and finally jumped out of his empty thoughts.

"Sorry," She said as she pulled away and jotted down notes, "Your glands are swollen. That might be because of all the throwing up."

"It's fine, yeah," Deidara said as he looked back up at the ceiling.

He would have once again spaced out if Sakura hadn't tugged on his boxers. He looked at her with a question stare, like asking her 'what more do you want?'.

"This is a physical Deidara," Sakura said as she tugged on one of his arms to get him to stand up, "and since you have no medical history, I need to check you lower regions."

Deidara just stared at her wide eyed where he stood. She didn't even wait for permission since she knew he was more likely to dart out of the nearest door.

"Just relax," Sakura said in a professional tone, "you are not my first male patient."

Suddenly Deidara decided having Sakura as his doctor instead of a stranger was a bad thing.

* * *

Tsunade had hurried over to the hospital as soon as she could. She had to finish reading the document that she was in the middle of, but as soon as she had finished reading it and signing it, she let her clones continue working as she dashed off to the hospital.

She knew something was wrong. She had known that there was a high possibility that Deidara wasn't just suffering a weird mutation of the stomach bug. However, she had hoped that she was wrong, for the kid's sake.

She stormed into the hospital, not saying hello to _any_ of the staff or patients, making a beeline for Deidara's room, 212. She knocked at the door and could swear she heard someone let out a surprised yelp. She couldn't make out what Sakura was saying- though she knew the girl's voice- but didn't try to enter. She just flared her chakra and waited for access.

Sakura after a moment opened the door and let her shishou in. Tsunade didn't linger and soon she was inside the room, the door closed and relocked, and was looking at her student.

"What's wrong," Tsunade demanded.

"I really don't want to be right. But Deidara's body seems a bit off and again, I don't want to be right. I want you to double check my findings." Sakura said as she looked at her teacher.

Deidara was on the other side of the room, sitting in a chair and desperately fighting off the blush on his face. Tsunade guessed he was the one who had let out the yelp. She probably knew why too, but she threw that to the back of her mind as she grabbed her student's notes and looked over them.

"Deidara, table, NOW," Tsunade barked when she finished reading the notes.

Deidara did not argue as he swiftly made his way to the examination table and sat on the edge. He didn't have to guess like he had with Sakura about Tsunade's temper. If he had put up a stink, then he would be castrated in an instant, and he didn't want any more women tugging his boxers down.

Tsunade gave him a small shove, telling him to lay down on his back without even speaking a word. He complied. Once again someone took their hand and began rub his stomach hard. It wasn't the slightest bit pleasing, actually, it hurt. Sakura had at least been softer then Tsunade, who just pressed as hard as she could.

"Relax Deidara," Tsunade said as she lifted her hand so that it hovered over his stomach slightly before performing the diagnosis jutsu.

"It's kind of hard when something's wrong, yeah," Deidara retorted, but regretted it when Tsunade began to rub his stomach hard again to punish him.

"Sakura, it seems you were right to call me. Deidara, get dressed. I and Sakura will be back in a second." Tsunade said as she headed for the door, Sakura right behind her.

He didn't even get the chance to retort as he felt his stomach sudden lurch. He held it down, but in doing so, missed the chance to ask what was wrong. So he just hastily redressed in his clothes, muttering angrily about the pants being snug, and sat down in a chair near the bathroom inside the room, back in his henge.

Not five minutes later, Tsunade and Sakura came back in with very serious looks on their faces.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong yet, yeah?" Deidara said with a tired look on his face.

"Deidara, from what we can deduce," Tsunade said before giving out a loud sigh, "Whoever attacked you screwed with your chakra coils and your chakra points are also messed up. That's what's making you so sick."

"But the weight… what is causing that, yeah?"

"The charka," Sakura explained, "It basically being redirected to your core. It's overloading your body with too much chakra and you body is trying to absorb as much as it can to take stress off your coils. Your body is reacting to it as if it is an infection. Bloating, gaining weight, stomach flu like symptoms are all signs of it. The worse symptoms that would come in a couple more months are blindness, body being paralyzed, and eventually death."

There was one question that had Deidara scared out of his mind. He wanted to know but at the same time was afraid of the answer. He could feel his stomach knotting again as he voiced his question.

"Is the damage reversible, yeah?"

"Yes," Sakura nodded as she chewed her lip.

"But the process is long and exhausting on both sides. In fact, you would have to be taken care or for a while, not being able to move around much, and definitely not able to use your chakra of a couple of weeks while it reloads and fixes the problem internally. Also we should do it in the next day or so before you get to the worse symptoms."

"Then how are we going to handle this? I can't come with you to the office and you and Shizune are needed there, no matter how much sooner you've been getting home." Deidara asked as he looked at the blonde Hokage.

"_What_ are we going to do?" Sakura asked as she looked at Deidara.

His mood had taken a turn for the worst as he just listening to his diagnosis. On top of already having nausea, he just couldn't handle anything else. His stomach was already in knots and threatened to empty itself. He just sat on the chair and looked at his stomach in some disgust. He couldn't believe this was happening to him!

"_We_?" Tsunade said with a coy look on her face, "Does this include you?"

Sakura looked away as she fought the blush on her face. She couldn't help but notice Tsunade's smug expression and Deidara's interested expression to what she had said.

"I-I-I c-co-could take care of him," Sakura finally said, "But we will need a good excuse to why I am at your house so much."

This was just too perfect. Tsunade had only dreamed of an opportunity like this. She had to take it now or never, and she'd be darned if she didn't take it now.

"I know," Tsunade said as she sent a sly look to Sakura. This was the best opportunity to get Sakura to move in without protest. "I'll take you and Naruto into my house hold. With Naruto being not only the jinchuuriki but Jiraiya's apprentice, I'll say he needs some grooming that he couldn't get living alone."

"How does that affect me?" Sakura said as she lifted an eyebrow.

"I'll tell them that you need grooming as well so that you might surpass me one day as a medic. That you need to live here to get full access to all my book, scroll, and medic notes. As a final task to your apprenticeship." Tsunade said with a smirk.

"But why does Naruto-san need to move in as well, yeah?" Deidara cut in with an unpleased look in his expression.

"Because he really does need the grooming and people have been trashing his apartment again." Tsunade said as she smiled, "So will you agree to this Sakura?"

Deidara knew there had to be more to this, but he would wait till it was just him and Tsunade to voice his suspicions.

Sakura on the other hand was heavily debating it. On one hand she'd be allowed free access to all the scrolls she wanted and wouldn't be so alone, but on the other had she would have to put up with the mood swings the blonde would no doubt have because of his lack of independence, put up with Naruto everyday, probably go insane with his and Deidara's poor manners, and not to mention she felt like she would be imposing.

But then again, Naruto was like her brother and Tsunade was like a mother to her. Even Shizune was like a sister to her and she knew the black haired woman would make a habit of coming to visit- maybe even moving in herself. It could be real fun having a family again, not fearing being alone when she came home and having people to eat with.

She didn't know how she felt about Deidara yet. But, hey she was going to be taking care of him for the next couple of weeks if she did agree to this. Because there was no way _Nartuo_ would be able to take care of Deidara properly. Perhaps she would find a place for him in the family too. Sakura decided that it was important to accept this, because then she'd have a family again. Dysfunctional, yes, but a family that needed her.

"Yeah," Sakura finally said with a nod, "I'd like to move in."

"Great!" Tsunade beamed as she encased the girl into a hug, "Start packing because you're moving in by the end of tomorrow!"

"T-T-Tomorrow!" Sakura stuttered as she fought for air in the air restricting hug, "That's not long!"

"Oh please, are you going to tell me that you already moved all the way into your new apartment?"

"No… I don't really have much since the fire," Sakura said as she pulled herself out of Tsunade's chest.

"Then there won't be a problem!" Tsunade said as she clapped her on the back with a smug grin on her face, "Go back to work, and I will take Dei-kun home. My ANBU will be at your apartment bright and early to help you move things, so start packing tonight."

And with that, Tsunade had collected Rei and both of them where out of there before Sakura could even say: "Uchihas wear spandex."

Not to much surprise, 'Rei' had been quiet the entire way back. Tsunade didn't even bother him as he contemplated what had been told to him.

By the time they got home, Tsunade had ordered him to go lay down for a bit while she made some food. He didn't fight back and just went to his room and lay down on his back; knees close as he subconsciously began to rub his stomach.

He was going to have to be taken care of for a while. That meant that he couldn't get up and go where he wanted or handle things himself. Yeah, he didn't like to be alone and now he wasn't going to be alone, but he had always still been free to make his own decisions and usually left to do what he wanted.

Even though it was going to be Sakura, who for some strange reason, made him feel calm and relaxed, he couldn't help be hate the idea of her having to assist him in everyday things for a while.

He didn't even notice Tsunade come to his doorway as he just stared at the ceiling and rubbed his stomach in small circles.

"Scary, isn't it." Tsunade said after a moment.

Deidara jumped at her voice as he looked over at her, immediately removing the hand and putting it under his head like the other one. He tried futilely not to blush.

"You don't need to act like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar," Tsunade teased as she gave him a smile, "After all the tummy rubs you received, I'm not surprised you are rubbing it yourself. Now, you looked like you wanted to ask me something back there."

"Is there a reason Naruto and Sakura are wanted here so badly. I know you've been planning this, you left the paperwork on the kitchen counter last week, yeah."

"Naruto is like the son I never had and Sakura is the daughter I never had." Tsunade said with a small smile.

"They should feel honored that you look at them that way, yeah," Deidara said as he stared at the ceiling looking a little dejected.

"Just because I didn't mention you in there doesn't mean you're not like one of my kids," Tsunade said as she walked in further and sat at the edge of the bed, "I just found you a little later then them."

Deidara just stared at her in shock. He hadn't been prepared for that. He had actually been jealous about how much she talked about Naruto and Sakura that before he had met them, he had hated the very thought of them. But now he had met Sakura, and he liked her. Naruto was okay…

But to think that Tsunade though him as her child, lifted any ounce of jealously that he had left and made him want to burst out into tears with joy. But he didn't. He just decided to smile at her.

A genuine smile that only Sakura had ever gotten out of him after the incident. Not a smirk or a smug look, but a smile.

"Thanks Tsunade-obasan," Deidara said with a smile.

"Your very welcome gaki! Now, come on food's ready."

And with that they both went into the kitchen to grab a bite to eat.

* * *

Did I ever mention I like reviews? My goal is still 100 reviews!

...

So here are some things I would like you to answer:

**Did you like it?**

**How many of you are already liking where this is going?**

**Is Deidara and Sakura's relationship good so far? As in not going too fast?**

**Did you like Deidara's aliment? Did you think it was something else?**

**If so was it because of the false hints I left ya?**

**Anything _special_**** you want me to add later on?**

Here is the translations so far:

(Dat)_Tebayo: Naruto's japanese catch phrase... not sure it really means believe it. Someone told me it didn't mean anything though- like Gozoro._

_Kure-Tori: Clay bird_

_Shishou: master_

_obasan: Aunt_

_Baa-san or Baa-chan: old lady or grandma_

Please tell me what you think so far!!

Ja Ne

Volleys-chan


	6. Slight Discomfort

Once again! Hello to all my readers!

Here is the chapter you all have been waiting for. After this one, I will be either working on KSM or Redefined or even That's my Lullaby... Maybe even G:AI. But this one will not be the next updated one.

I am also playing around with two new stories. One called Project Ryuu Tenshi and the other is still a working title.

For Deisaku fans, you might be interested in Project Ryuu Tenshi.

To my reviewers:

Wow! Lots of response! I have never had 19 reviews just for one chapter! I am half way to my goal and I would like to thank all of you! To others who also read Gashin: Artistic Instinct, I will be working on that one soon. I finally figured out how I want the chapter to go and also the next couple of chapters. I still am figuring out Kure-tori's ending, but we'll get there when we get there.

So here it is!

Enjoy!!

* * *

_**Kure-tori**_

Chapter 6

_Slight Discomfort  


* * *

_

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, yeah

* * *

**

Deidara couldn't help but feel nervous as Shizune motioned him to lay on the examination table in Tsunade's private office in her home. He had been in here before, her checking his healing progress, but the new addition to the table was making him nervous.

"What are those things, yeah," Deidara asked, not bothering to move.

"They just hold your legs apart while we are performing the process. We need your legs out of the way, but think nothing of it." Shizune explained, pushing him towards the chair, "Please Dei-kun, just lie down and allow me to do my job."

He slowed her progress as he pushed back against her a bit and looked uneasily at the harnesses, "Is this going to hurt? I am getting put out if it is, yeah… Right?"

Shizune just sighed as she gave him one final push to the table, "Just lie down on it and I will explain the process."

"Where's Sakura and Tsunade-obasan?" Deidara asked as he sat on the edge, pushing himself forward and finally laying down.

"Tsunade," Shizune said as she gently grabbed one of his legs and placed it into the proper harness, strapping and snapping it in, "Is getting the required items with Sakura."

"That shouldn't take too long," Deidara said as she began to place his other leg in the other harness.

"Well," Shizune drawled as she pulled something else out from under the table and quickly strapped his arm in it, "No one else knows about this so we trying to gather the stuff without raising suspicion-"

"What's with the cuffs?" Deidara asked, no longer caring what was taking Tsunade and Sakura, but instead for his welfare.

Shizune managed to get his other hand before he could react properly, "To keep you from struggling. The process isn't very comfortable. So we need to refrain you from injuring us out of impulse."

Deidara's stomach lurched. He wasn't about to throw up, but he was currently frightened over what he had signed up for.

"How painful is this going to be?" He yelled, his voice thick with fear.

"Slightly painful, sorry, Dei," Shizune said as she looked at him with a guilty expression, "We can't necessarily knock you out because you are required to tell us if the pain increases from what is should be. We also can't give you and drugs since again, you need to monitor the pain."

"How will I know what is should feel like, yeah?" Deidara yelled as he began to breath in fast and hard in pure panic.

"Calm down Dei, this isn't going to help. We can't knock you out and you need to stay calm." Shizune said as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"But… But…" Deidara began protesting just as the door slid open.

Tsunade entered the room carrying one of the longest needles he had ever seen and Sakura was behind her looking a little vexed about whatever they had been talking about.

Sakura's face just blushed a bit as she glared at her teacher, "Can we just stop talking about it now. Deidara already looks like he's having a mild panic attack."

Tsunade snapped her attention to Deidara who was eyeing the needle in fear. She sighed as she set it down and patted his head gently.

"Don't worry, I actually need to switch out the needle," Tsunade said, trying to calm him down.

"Can I change my mind?" Deidara asked as he struggled a bit, "I mean, come on! This is going to hurt a lot isn't it, yeah!"

"It's only slightly uncomfortable, Deidara." Tsunade reassured him as she held his chin in her hand, "Just relax. It'll be better then dying, remember?"

"Yeah," Deidara said as he forced himself to calm down a bit, "How are you doing pinkie?"

"I just got done having the step by step sex talk with my teacher, I am _great_," She said with sarcasm dripping from the last part, "Don't call me pinkie or I will make you regret it."

"Okay," Deidara said with a smirk, "No jokes about the hair… Got it, yeah."

He would ask her about the other subject later. Right now she looked too ruffled to continue on.

"Alright, we are going to begin in a moment," Tsunade said as she grabbed what she and Shizune had been preparing, "So you need to remain calm."

"Okay," Deidara said as he squeezed his eyes shut, "Just get this over with."

He was surprised when a small hand grabbed on to the back of his hand. He opened his eyes and glanced at the hand which was attached to Sakura.

"You'll be fine," She reassured as she just smiled at him, holding his attention, "The pain will be uncomfortable, but it will pass."

"Alright," Deidara nodded as he felt them lift up his shirt and tug his pants down slightly, "Alright, yeah…"

He just continued to stare at her hand as he felt them clean an area of his stomach with a disinfectant wipe before pricking him with something. He couldn't help but yelp in pain as whatever was in it was injected into his body. His gaze shifted to what they were doing just to see Tsunade pull out a slightly _larger_ needle out of his stomach.

"What the hell! You said it wasn't going to be big, yeah!" Deidara shouted as he watched her put it on the tray.

"I said that it wasn't the one I was going to use on you, never said the other one was bigger or smaller. Now hush, we are beginning the process," Tsunade said as she took some chakra conducting gel and rubbed it onto his bare stomach.

He flinched at how cold it was. Once they had finished rubbing it onto his slightly protruding belly, Shizune began to take a paintbrush and ink stone and began to draw a series of seals.

"These aren't permanent, but they are going to help us focus our chakra," Sakura said as she patted his hand reassuringly, "There will be a discomfort, so try not to ground or clench your teeth. If the pain increases, tell us. It should just be one constant pain, neither increasing or decreasing."

He nodded before he shut his eyes, tears of fear rolling down his face as his stomach knotted again. He could feel the chakra forming in the hands of the women as they preformed a series of hand signs before resting their hands on the seals.

Pain. Tons of agonizing pain. It didn't increase, but it definitely didn't decrease. It wasn't the most painful thing he had ever felt, but it was constant and the same level of pain. It was somewhere in the range of 'I can't handle it' and 'I am going to pass out from it.' Feeling something in that range without it wavering or letting up was worse then torture.

Deidara let out a scream as tears escaped his eyes. His arms fought to break free and his legs tried to pull together.

"You guys are a bunch of freaking _liars_," He managed to yell as he fought for freedom.

"Deidara, calm down and keep yourself still. We need a good fifteen minutes before we can let up for a break," Tsunade yelled over his cries of pain.

He just began to run through a bunch of obscenities, calling each of them anything he could think of. They just ignored it. If this was how he handled it, it was fine.

To Deidara, fifteen minutes was hell. Slow and unrelenting. He almost began to cry in joy when they pulled away for the small break. Sakura was immediately by his face, attempting to soothe him in anyway possible.

"No more," He whimpered as she cradled his head to her stomach, "No more, yeah…"

His mind foggy from the pain, trying to keep his conscious from going under. He could feel Sakura's chakra pulling him back from the edge as he continued to beg.

"Deidara," Tsunade said as she touched his shoulder, "We can't quit now that the process has started. We can only take small breaks and allow you some time to breath."

"I… can't… No…" Deidara whimpered as he buried his face into Sakura's stomach.

"I can give you an oxygen mask to help you with your breathing," Tsunade offered.

Deidara just nodded as he attempted to compose himself. Shizune came to the other side of his head with a warm washcloth and, after coaxing him wordlessly to pull away from Sakura's stomach, washed his face clean of the tears, snot, and sweat.

"Here," Tsunade said as she placed the mask onto his face, "We need to start again."

"No…" Deidara whimpered as he felt them take their places again.

"We can't stop or it endangers your life." Tsunade stated.

They did the hand signs again and placed their hands onto the seals once more and tried to drown out Deidara. It was hard, but the way the progress was going, he would need two more sessions of the pain. Deidara just cried out, but still was paying attention to his job. He thought he would go insane if the pain did increase, but it didn't. Finally, after 15 minutes they pulled back again.

"How are you holding up Deidara?" Tsunade asked as she felt his wrist for his heartbeat.

It was still strong, if not a little fast. Deidara was panting as he held his tongue. Tears spilling from his eyes as he no longer fought the reaction. Sakura was wiping them away as she pushed back his hair in a comforting gesture, once again pulling his mind from passing out.

"Don't worry, we are half way through," Tsunade said as she sat down for her break.

Shizune used the time to use the restroom and Sakura just continued to comfort Deidara who was pleading for it to stop.

"I… can't… do anymore… yeah." He said between sobs, "Please… no more."

"We can't, its half way done and then I promise that you'll be able to sleep all you want and not have to worry about it. Just hang on for another 2 sessions." Sakura whispered as she pulled back.

Shizune came back and the process was repeated. When they stopped for break, Deidara looked like he was at wits end, but Sakura comforted him and managed to promise him anything he wanted to eat when it was done.

The women surrounded him for one last time and concentrated on their task. Finally, Tsunade broke from the jutsu and announced them done. Deidara was panting hard as he fought to stay conscious.

"You did very good Deidara," Tsunade said as she put her hands to his temples, "I'm going to put you under now so we can finish up. Good job sweetie."

"Never…again… am I falling for this…" Deidara managed to say before blacking out.

"We know," was the last thing he heard before sweet darkness took him.

* * *

Naruto happily spotted the pinkette walking slowly down the street and tackled her with a hug.

"Sakura-chan!" He greeted her happily, "Where have you been?"

Sakura just turned her head and smiled at him wearily, "At the Senju complex. I was helping Tsunade-shishou with something."

"You look tired," Naruto noted as he observed her closer, "What were you doing?"

"I can't tell you," Sakura said in a sing song voice, "but you'll find out eventually."

Naruto released her from his hold and followed her to her destination, telling her of his day and the training he was getting from Kakashi.

"The lazy bum doesn't even really teach me, tebayo," Naruto grumbled as the got to her apartment.

"Mhmm," Sakura agreed as she unlocked the door and ushered him in.

"All he does is read that smut. He's worse then Ero-sennien!" Naruto said as he threw his arms up in the air.

Sakura just grabbed a box and handed it to Naruto, "Hold this please."

"Sure," He said without missing a beat, "I mean how hard is it for him just to train me, dattebayo?"

"Very hard according to you," Sakura said as she placed a box on top of the first one, "You should ask someone else to assist you in your training."

"Maybe I should," Naruto said with a determined nod as Sakura grabbed the last box, "So what's up with the boxes?"

Sakura just smiled at her friends delayed reaction, "I'm moving in with Tsunade-shishou. I am going to be living there so I can study and complete my apprenticeship."

"But isn't that-"

"-Rei-" Sakura cut in before he could blurt out Deidara's name.

"That Kure-tori Rei living there?" Naruto finished with a displeased look on his face.

"Yes, of course Rei lives there," Sakura said as she ushered him out the door, "In fact, that's going to be some of my responsibility since I'll be staying in the complex a lot of the time: Watching Rei. She's very sweet you know."

"But Sakura-chan," Naruto whined as they exited the apartment and Sakura locked the door before putting it in the mailbox for the owner, "I don't like the idea of you being alone with Rei!"

Sakura just smirked as she ignored his violent protesting as she led him to the Senju complex. She opened the front gate with Naruto paying no attention and just listing off the reasons that it was a 'bad' idea.

"Naruto, Rei-chan has done you no wrong. Gaara has forgiven her and why is it that you are judging her? You usually look at the better side of people, like Sasuke."

"Don't compare Sasuke to _her_!" Naruto snapped.

"I won't because Rei is sweet and Sasuke is stuck up. I miss him dearly but that doesn't mean he's flawless." Sakura said as she opened the mansion door, "Besides, it's not like I'm going to live here alone with him."

Naruto noted that she changed the pronoun, "Baa-chan doesn't count since she's at the office."

"Not her Naruto…" Sakura said as she led him down the hall.

"Shizune-nee-chan doesn't count either," Naruto claimed, "Neither does Tonton."

"Not them, but nice try," Sakura said as she opened the door to her new room.

It was a nice room with a queen sized bed and just waiting to be decorated to her fancy. It was also not far from the library or kitchen and Deidara's room was at the end of the hall. She set down the boxes and grabbed the ones Naruto was holding and set them down as well.

"Well then," Naruto started, "who?"

"Come with me," Sakura said with a smile as she led him to the kitchen's common room area to find Tsunade lounging on a couch and Shizune sipping some tea rather slowly, "Guess who I found."

"Naruto," Tsunade said with a tired grin, "Good, now I don't have to go looking for him."

"I still don't get it, who else is living here with you and them?"

"You are stupid," Tsunade said as she sat up, "You are moving into my house so I can teach you. You need some grooming that Jiraiya and Kakashi just don't offer and you need it badly."

"I'm moving in? But I already have a home," Naruto argued as he shook his head.

"I already told the owner that you'd be out by tonight. I have my ANBU picking up your things and moving your furniture into storage. There is no room for arguing." Tsunade notified him as she stood up.

Naruto looked at her with a shocked expression. He had never had a family, so he never had lived with someone before. Mission were the closest things he had ever gotten to living with people for a while. And that was just for a while. He would still go home to an empty beat up apartment and live and eat alone.

"What are you going to teach me?" Naruto finally asked.

The woman smiled as she gazed at the child she considered her son, "Everything I can."

Naruto just looked at her with wide eyes. Jiraiya had never even been that blunt. Kakashi never told him so he didn't have to teach him that much. For the first time, Naruto couldn't help but feel overwhelmed.

"And not just me, but if you _ask_ Deidara nicely he might teach you a few things as well," Tsunade said with a grin, "He won't be able to spar with you, but he could coach you."

Naruto cocked his head to the side as he looked at her with a confused expression.

"Okay, one, why would Deidara teach me anything and two, why won't he be able to spar? Is this cause of him freaking out when I touched him?"

"Deidara-kun isn't mean, but he isn't patient," Sakura defended the absent blonde bomber.

"As for why he can't spar, he has a rather… interesting… condition." Shizune said trying to dance around the answer.

"He's going to be down for a while. He just had a procedure that basically shuts down all his chakra points and his coils and gives them a reboot," Tsunade said bluntly.

Naruto looked at all three women, "That doesn't sound too bad."

"No Naruto, it is. Do you remember that operation I had to perform on you after you screwed up your arm with that wind rasengan technique?" Tsunade said as she looked at the teen.

"Yeah... Never falling for the 'it's not going to hurt, only slight discomfort' crap again, tebayo."

"Tsunade-shishou and Shizune-nee-chan gave Deidara the same load of crap," Sakura said as she stared at the guilty two.

"Ouch… then it must have hurt," Naruto said with a pained expression on his face, "But what was up with him having a procedure like that. Usually you guys put people out before doing that."

"Remember when I told you he got beat pretty bad? Well his attacker screwed with his chakra points and coils and if we hadn't corrected it, he would have died within a year. The procedure has to actually have the patient conscious," Sakura said as she glanced down.

"… oh…" was all Naruto said.

"He will be okay now, but he needs someone to take care of him. So our cover story is that you and I need to be here for some much needed grooming," Sakura said as she glanced at the door, "How is Deidara?"

"Still resting," Shizune said, "An hour of that will do that to a person."

"So how long will he be down and out?" Naruto questioned them, since they had sparked his interest.

"Naruto, since you're going to be living here, you have to know what to not talk about to Deidara. What we are telling you does not leave the complex nor does it ever leave your mouth unless it's with one of us without other people who do not know about it, understand?" Tsunade said, making sure to cover it all.

"Hai."

"Deidara will be needing assistance for a good month or so. Sakura will be handling him most of the time, but I want you to also help as well," Tsunade explained.

"Me?!"

"Yes, now shut up. Deidara, if you haven't noticed, has been suffering a slight phobia. He is afraid to be left alone and is extremely wary of men and unexpected contact. I want you to at least help him calm down around you, so eventually he will be able to rid himself of his paranoia. Understand?"

"Yeah," Naruto said with a nod, "You want me to help him get over a fear of people?"

"Correct," Sakura said with a nod, grinning that he caught on.

"That's cool. I can do it, tebayo!" Naruto asked with a proud look on his face.

"Good, if you had refused, I would have not held back. He needs other people right now and I think he needs a bit of your magic touch, Naruto-kun," Sakura said with an encouraging tone, "Let's go help the ANBU move your stuff and I'll treat you to _one_ bowl of ramen."

"Hai," Naruto said.

* * *

Deidara slowly opened his eyes wordlessly. He gazed about the empty room and pulled the covers closer. He felt terrible, much better then the procedure, but still terrible. He couldn't even move without summoning all the strength he had.

"Never again am I falling for 'slight uncomfortable feeling', yeah," He grumbled to himself as he snuggled more into his pillow.

"Naruto! Wait! You're going to-"

**_CRASH_**

"- Drop it…" Sakura's voice said, becoming rather low.

"Oops," a male voice said, "Well at least it's my stuff and not yours."

"Great," Deidara grumbled as he stared at his door, "loud people, yeah…"

"I'm going to check on Deidara-kun. Your room is two doors down from here. Don't drop anything else, he could still be sleeping."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be quiet," the male voice, who could only be Naruto, grumbled.

He heard silent footsteps approach his door and a slight knock, just incase he was awake. He shut his eyes, pretending to sleep. He really didn't feel like talking to anyone right after waking up from undergoing that procedure. The door opened quietly and he feigned his breathing to that of one being asleep.

He felt her approach and lay her hand on his head for a second, taking his temperature, before gently coaxing his hold on the blankets out of his grip to get a good view of his midsection. He felt her had rest on his stomach as her chakra enter his body, probing it for changes and damage before withdrawing. He could sense her smile as she pulled the sheets up once more, just the way he had them before lowering herself to his eye level.

"You're good," Sakura said with a smug tone to her voice, "But I'm a medic. I know your faking. Now how are you feeling?"

"Like I just got done pulling every muscle in my body, yeah. It feels like lead," he grumbled.

He refused to open his eyes and look at her. He could feel she was close, but he was still rather irked about the pain he had gone through.

"Yes, your muscles were trying to pull you into the fetal position, but we couldn't let that happen. You might not be able to move much for the rest of the day, but you need to sleep anyways. Anything else?" Sakura said as she continued to look at his face.

"Yeah, you guys are a bunch of freaking liars."

"I never said what amount of pain it would be, I just told you it would be uncomfortable. Tsunade-shishou and Shizune-nee-chan were just trying to keep you calm. You looked rather distraught to them. And now its over and you no longer have an impending doom hanging over your head."

"Ugh, I want to kill that idiot for doing that to me," He growled.

"If you say so Dei," Sakura said as she began to stand up, "What would you like for dinner? You missed lunch and you couldn't have breakfast or anything since midnight."

"Something simple, but good… and maybe some dangos, yeah…"

"Very well," Sakura said as she leaned down and touch his temples, "I'll wake you when its done, for now you need sleep. Good night Deidara."

"Goodnight," Deidara mumbled as she began to put him under.

Once again he was met by the wonderful peacefulness of sleep and dreamt of nothing.

* * *

Did I ever mention I like reviews? My goal is still 100 reviews! 50 more to go!!! Whoot!

...

So here are some things I would like you to answer:

**Did you like it?**

**How many of you are already liking where this is going?**

**Should Deidara help Naruto with his studies?**

**People requested some Tsunade-Deidara time, do you guys still want that?**

**How about showing more Shizune-Deidara time?**

**Anything _special_**** you want me to add later on?**

Here is the translations so far:

(Dat)_Tebayo: Naruto's japanese catch phrase... not sure it really means believe it. Someone told me it didn't mean anything though- like Gozoro._

_Kure-Tori: Clay bird_

_Shishou: master_

_obasan: Aunt_

_Baa-san or Baa-chan: old lady or grandma_

Please tell me what you think so far!!

Ja Ne

Volleys-chan


	7. Breakfast at Senju's

Hey everyone! Sorry it took so long to update. I didn't know how to go about this chapter, but I think I did what I wanted to do. I also have been busy reading other stories. There are a lot more DeiSaku stories out there, but few that really have captured my interest. Also I've been getting sucked into the ItachiSakura pairings. Non-massacre is hilarious stuff dudes.

Thanks to everyone for all the reveiws! I love getting them in and all your feedback! I even am going to use a couple sugestions that DarkLillyOfTheNight96 offered me. I haven't really put them in the story yet, but I wanted to offer her some gratitude! Thanks for the ideas!!!

By the way. I have written my first AU Highschool fic. DeiSaku of course. Read it. It's all in first person. It's from Sakura's point of view and The people who have read it so far think it is quite funny. It's different, but nice.

So here you go. Not much else to comment on, but I was offered another suggestion a while back and now I am entertaining the idea. It would be funny...

But let me not ramble any longer.

Enjoy.

* * *

**_Kure-Tori_**

Chapter 7

_Breakfast at Senju's  


* * *

_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, yeah. Or it would be totally different! Dattebayo!**

* * *

Deidara groaned as he woke up to the sounds of something crashing. He couldn't move all too much yet, but he was able to prop himself up on his elbows. He could hear the dashing of feet on the wooden floor and someone's door being slide open.

"Naruto, are you alright?" He could hear Sakura yell in a worried tone.

"Ita," Naruto groaned gruffly, "I fell out of the bed, that's all. Forgot where I was this morning and freaked a bit. Sorry Sakura-chan for waking you up."

He could hear the pink haired woman give out a loud sigh before answering her teammate, "Don't worry Naruto, I have been up for a while. Just get ready for breakfast, I need to check on Deidara."

"Hai," Naruto said before the door slide closed again.

Deidara laid back down now that he knew there wasn't any danger and waited for the footsteps to stop at his door. They were light and almost nonexistent like they had been when she was dashing to Naruto's room, but then again she was rushing. Now Sakura wasn't in a rush and her dominate shinobi behavior was overtaking her.

Like always, she flared her chakra and lightly knocked at the door, waiting for either a command or no command.

"Enter," Deidara said as he moved his neck to look at her entering the door.

"Good morning," Sakura said with a small smile on her face, "How are you feeling?"

"I can't move very much, yeah," he said as he looked at her, "What happened?"

He knew what had happened, he just wanted to hear it from her. From what she was wearing, she had either been in her bed still sleeping or in her room still relaxing before getting ready of the day. She was still her nightgown, but had a silk robe covering her up.

"Naruto has a bad habit of forgetting where he is when he is in a new environment, so this morning he freaked out and crashed on the floor," Sakura explained with a rueful look, "He is so use to getting attacked that he has some very strange habits for waking up. But it has kept him alive this long, why change it, ne?"

"Why indeed," Deidara said as he nodded.

"So are you hungry? I am going to go make breakfast pretty soon cause you can't get up at the moment and if it was up to Naruto, we'd be having ramen," Sakura said with a small giggle.

"He really loves that stuff, yeah."

"It kept him alive this long," Sakura said as she rolled her eyes, "but it is also what makes him so short for his age."

"So you weren't kidding about the twenty-something bowls of ramen he eats?"

"Nope," Sakura said with a shudder, "I've watched him do it too."

"No offense, but ew, yeah," Deidara said as he stuck out his tongue.

Sakura just laughed as she ran her fingers through her messy hair and pulled the loose strands back only to have them fall back into her face again.

"Okay, enough about Naruto's bad eating habits, what do you want to eat?"

"Anything that you can cook. I am not picky, yeah."

"Alright, then I will bring you some eggs and rice." Sakura said as she began to exit, "I'll be back in a couple minutes."

"Thank you," Deidara called out before closing his eyes again.

* * *

Sakura had been finishing the fried eggs and rice as Naruto came shuffling though the doorway and plopped down on one of the chairs in front of the kitchen table.

"Good morning again," Sakura said as she finished cooking the eggs and put them on the plate she already had out.

"You're making breakfast?" Naruto asked, cocking his head slightly at the thought.

"Yes, just because I can't cook any other meal doesn't mean that breakfast is beyond me."

"But you burned the water…" Naruto said slightly horrified at the thought of what was in those eggs and rice.

"Naruto," Sakura growled before shoving the plate into his face, "If you think I am terrible at cooking, then you taste this. If it is terrible, then _you_ cook breakfast. No ramen."

Naruto sighed as he looked at the food meant for Deidara. Since he had grown up with Sakura and went on long missions with her, he already knew she may be able to make food that _looked_ nice, but she usually put too many spices in it.

So, even though he wasn't totally sure how he felt about the other blonde, Naruto didn't want him to suffer eating something that would taste bad enough to kill over a rat. With a big sigh, Naruto grabbed some chopsticks and took a fried egg and ate it with a nervous look.

He was right. She used too much spice again.

He calmly, trying to keep himself from gagging and getting beaten with the frying pan, he got up, walked to the sink and removed the piece he had eaten before turning on the water and rinsing out his mouth.

"That bad?" Sakura asked looking deflated.

"You make it look good, but you add too much to it." Naruto said after spitting out the water, "I guess that means I'm cooking. Go get a tray for me."

"Hai," Sakura said with a sigh.

She left the room to go find the tray, which was located in the closet and headed back to Naruto, remembering that Tsunade said she would drop in around breakfast time to give Naruto his first assignments as her student.

However, everything she had been thinking about immediately was thrown into the back of her mind as she walked back into the kitchen common room combo.

Naruto, she had just realized, wasn't wearing his forehead protector or his jacket yet, just a plain black tee, and had the most calm expression on his face as he finished washing the frying pan, pot, and dishes she had used. Her bad food gone.

He had already gone to the fridge and retrieved the ingredients that he would need for making a large amount of food, so he just reached over, holding a bowl in one hand, and grabbed an egg.

He cracked it once on the sink, like a _real_ professional, opened up the egg single handedly, tossed the shell, and repeated the egg cracking process eleven more times.

Sakura just stood there like a fish, gapping as she watched the usually hyper ninja, calmly, seriously, and swiftly prepare a _real_ breakfast.

He had made six eggs over medium, and scrambled the rest, adding a little salt and pepper and milk –to make them fluffy. He had just _professionally_ flipped the hash browns into the air and caught them back in the frying pan with no problems. He also stopped the rice maker right when he needed to without looking away from the food he was currently cooking.

"Hey Sakura," Naruto said, not turning around and looking away from his cooking, "Get six plates ready and put six pieces of toast in the toaster, will you?"

Sakura nodded dumbly, not even realizing Naruto couldn't see her nod, and went to the cupboards and grabbed the six plates.

"Six?" She finally realized, "Who do you think is coming?"

She knew that Tsunade and Shizune were going to drop in, but who was the sixth?

"Well, One for Deidara; one for you; one for me, that makes three; then there is one for Baa-chan; one for Shizune; and one for either Jiraiya or Sai. I have a feeling one of them is going to show up, more likely Jiraiya then Sai though, he always comes for free food." Naruto said as he flipped the shredded potatoes again.

Sakura looked confused, "How did you know that Tsunade was going to come back? And with Shizune?"

That was the first time Naruto looked away from the food he was cooking. He scrunched up his face as he scratched his cheek lightly, looking very confused at Sakura's comment.

"Wasn't it obvious?" Naruto asked, before looking back at the food, "Don't forget the toast."

Sakura went and grabbed the bread, but didn't drop the subject, "What do you mean obvious? I knew she was coming back because she told me."

"Well," Naruto started as he began to roll up the fried eggs with some chopsticks, "She left rather early this morning and she left three teenagers in her house, which only Deidara is only use to living in and he can't really move. So it is only obvious that she would come back around breakfast to make sure everything is going well, and Shizune would come with her to make sure that Baa-chan didn't drink sake or ditch work. Oh, and she has yet to give me any instructions, so she has to come back for that too."

Sakura just stared at him for a minute before even being able to think of a coherent sentence.

"Naruto…"

"Yeah, I know, doesn't sound like me, 'tebayo. I usually am not asked to explain myself or a lot of the things I do would make more sense."

"Like why you leave your room a complete mess?"

"My house was messy so I knew if people had been there. If some of the things had been accidentally touched, I would be able to notice it. I made it so there would be no room to move around unless you knew how to walk around in there."

"But why the week old ramen?"

Naruto just rubbed his head and gave an embarrassed grin, "I had left it there on accident. I had been rushed out on a mission and was gone for a week. When I came back, I had been too tired to move it."

Wow. That actually made a lot more sense. Naruto must have been extremely observant his whole entire life about the things that went on around him. During their Academy years she remembered he would watch others around him and learn off of what they were doing.

"You've always been this observant, haven't you?" Sakura finally said as realization dawned on her.

"I got better when I was with Ero-sennin, but he still says I overlook a few things," Naruto said as he rubbed the back of his head with an embarrassed look.

_'Yeah, like Hinata having the biggest crush on you for the longest time,'_ Sakura thought to herself as she just smiled back at him.

"So," Naruto said as he finished up the last of the fired eggs, "Did you put the toast in?"

Now it was Sakura's turn to look embarrassed as she realized she had forgotten about the bread in her hands that had never made it to the toaster. Naruto just wave it off and took out three pieces, saying the others could get theirs later when they showed up. He turned on the toaster and began to prepare three dishes on the tray, carefully balancing it as he placed the final pieces on it and lifted it up.

"Does Deidara have any medicine that he should be taking? Vitamins maybe?" Naruto asked as he held the tray carefully.

"Vitamins, but those are in his room…" Naruto nodded and headed out with the tray in hand.

"Where are you going?" Sakura asked as she followed him.

"Like you were going to leave Deidara eating by himself," Naruto said with a snuff, "And I don't want to sit and eat alone either, so I'm compromising, dattebayo."

Sakura didn't know how to respond to such observant words. She had never seen Naruto like this before. True, there were times that he would show a little of himself during a mission, but right now she had a feeling that this was the true Naruto at his best.

"Why don't you act like this everyday?"

"Because, as Shikamaru would say, 'it's just too troublesome'." Naruto laughed at his own joke, "But really, I'm observant, not smart. I would do this on a mission if I needed to, but other then that, no one really asks me to."

The conversation was cut off as they neared Deidara's door, Sakura knocking lightly on it before opening it a tad to see it Deidara was awake. He stirred when she opened the door and looked at her with a welcoming nod.

"We brought breakfast," Sakura said as she opened the door more and exposed Naruto holding the tray, "Naruto found me in the kitchen making a mess, so he cooked instead."

"You're just lucky I tasted her food meant for you first before she came back with it," Naruto said with a serious look, "Sakura-chan here is the only person I know who can burn water."

Deidara just looked at him slightly stunned at the thought of Naruto being the good cook and Sakura being the one that could kill. Irony was definitely the right word for this situation.

"I added too much spice," Sakura said as she rubbed the back of her head with an embarrassed look, "Here, let me help you sit up."

"Sure, yeah," Deidara said, getting over his shock, as he shift a bit to try to sit up on his own.

Naruto walked over to the table that was located in the room and set the tray down while Sakura helped prop up Deidara with pillows.

"We decided to have breakfast with you if that is okay," Sakura said as she went to the table and grabbed one end and dragged it over to the bed.

"It's fine with me," Deidara stated as he looked at the elaborate meal.

His respect for Naruto when up slightly at how the food was prepared. None of the food meant for him was touching, just incase he didn't like that. He could see that Naruto's plate had everything on it with no worries whether or not it touched while Sakura's only let the eggs touch, far away from the toast as to not get it soggy. Obviously Naruto knew his teammate's eating habits. Each had their own bowl of rice with a container of soy sauce waiting on the tray.

After saying their thanks, Sakura and Naruto began to eat. Deidara, however was having a hard time holding the chopsticks, let alone pick up his food. Naruto seemed the first to notice.

"Oi, Sakura, help Deidara with his food," Naruto said as he kept eating.

Deidara just squirmed a bit more before losing control of his chopsticks completely. Sakura didn't seem to mind picking up his chopsticks as she held hers in her mouth and picked up one of the fried eggs and held it up to his mouth.

Deidara just stared at it for a moment before blushing a bit as he ate it. He hated being this vulnerable, but then again, he rather be alive then dead so he was just going to have to suck it up. He quickly swallowed the bite, deciding that Naruto was a good cook, and took the rest off of the utensils so Sakura could go back to her food.

She would rotate, she took a bite of something and while she chewed, she would take his chopsticks and get him something to eat. Once she was sure he had taken all that he could chew, she would return to her own meal and grab another bite.

During the middle of the meal, Tsunade and Shizune showed up with Tonton at the raven haired woman's feet, plates and bowels in hand.

"We go to the kitchen to find Naruto and instead, we find a note saying to grab some grub and join you in here. So who do I thank for such a fine meal?" Tsunade said as she plopped down on a chair, Shizune following her lead and sitting at the small table.

"That would be Naruto," Sakura said as she swallowed the food in her mouth, "He decided that none of us needed food poisoning so he cooked instead of me."

Tsunade just nodded. She wasn't the greatest chief either, but she was still better then Sakura who could only heat up broth in a microwave and put meat in between two pieces of bread and call it a sandwich.

"Then thank you Naruto," Tsunade said with a grin.

"It really is good, Naruto," Shizune said as she finished taking a small bite, "But you left another plate out. Are you expecting someone?"

At that moment, the door opened again and Sakura could only stare at Naruto. The kid was right. Before them stood Jiraiya, who obviously only entered the room to see who was in it.

"Hime-chan," Jiraiya said with a smile, "I heard you had a cousin living with you, but I had heard that she was a girl. I'm looking at a guy, though he could be mistaken as a girl if you really don't look too hard…"

"Hey," Deidara yelled, but before he could continue his rant, Sakura shoved a fried egg into his mouth.

"It's best to ignore him," Naruto said with a sigh, "He's just a pervert."

Jiraiya pouted a bit as he looked at Tsunade, "Hime-chan, that little brat won't stop calling me that!"

"Why call a rat by any other name then a rat?" Tsunade asked as she lifted a brow.

"But he's calling me a pervert, not a rat!" Jiraiya argued, before sitting down next to his old teammate.

"Consider this then, why call a pervert anything other then a pervert, yeah?" Deidara snapped, still sore about the girl thing.

"Hime-chan, Naruto's got him doing it now!" Jiraiya complained as Naruto chucked happily at the thought.

"Why are you here Jiraiya?" Tsunade asked with a sigh, things had been going so well too…

Jiraiya had that grin on his face that Naruto knew all too well. He sighed as he set down his food and finished chewing what he could so Sakura wouldn't slap him upside the head for bad manners.

"He heard that Deidara was your _female_ cousin from a branch family. Think about it."

Deidara's and Tsunade's expressions got a little dark once it really hit them what Naruto was talking about. It was Tsunade however who blew up first, standing up from her chair and looking ready to strangle the old codger.

"Jiraiya! You pervert! You were just trying to scope him out to see if he was a looker if he really had been a girl, weren't you? Taking down notes while Deidara took a shower!"

"No!" Jiraiya hollered as he automatically readied himself for getting hit, "I was just curious! Honestly, I didn't think you had family left! I was just checking!"

Tsunade sighed as she sat back down, "He isn't really from some branch family. I needed a cover story for him until his ex-employer is either terminated or give up on him."

"So… is he-," He cut himself off and looked at the nineteen year old, "Are you Deidara no Akatsuki?"

"Was." Deidara replied, "Was Deidara no Akatsuki, now I am Kure-Tori Deidara, yeah."

"Or Kure-Tori Rei," Naruto added.

Jiraiya looked shocked, "So you had an informant in Akatsuki too?"

"What do you mean 'too'? Are you telling me all that stuff you knew about Akatsuki was from inside information and not through whispers heard in those whore houses you go to?" Tsunade demanded, her food long forgotten.

"Partly," Jiraiya said as he leaned away from her with a scared look on his face.

"Jiraiya, you are on thin ice. Spill. Now." Tsunade barked as became terrifying.

"I can't tell you who he is," Jiraiya whimpered.

"That makes it down to five people who could be his informant." Deidara noted.

"How so?" Tsunade said as she turned to look at the teen lying in his bed.

"There were, by the beginning of our movements this last year or so, nine active members that were given any amount of information whatsoever, yeah. Sasori died by this little minx's and his grandmother's hands, so that takes it down to eight. Bring Tobi-" The name sounded strangled in his throat. "-into the picture, that's nine again, yeah. Subtract Konan and Pein, since neither of them would purposely harm Pein's plans, that's seven. Subract me, that's six. Zetus would never betray his master, so that's five. Then again, Tobi is loyal to Zetsu so make that four people, yeah."

"So that leaves Itachi… Kisame… and… two others." Naruto said as he list off the ones he knew.

"Yeah. Kisame giving information away is very low. He isn't entirely loyal to Akatsuki, but he knows not to be caught doing anything that will get his hand or head taken off as punishment, yeah. Kakuzu would probably sell information, but Jiraiya-san here looks cheap. Not willing to pay for Kakuzu's high price, yeah. Hidan's an idiot, so he might let it loose, but then again no one is stupid to get near that idiot when he goes on a religious rant, yeah. That and he couldn't tell you ten things about the organization. Then there is Itachi. Who knows about him, but out of all four of the remaining, I think he would be the one, yeah."

Deidara sounded very irked at that point, but he managed to take a breath to calm himself down before doing anything else. Itachi was the other informant. It made so much sense now. Why the Naruto was never captured and always escaped. Itachi was playing Akatsuki. Inwardly that made the bomber a little happier.

An Uchiha was screwing over his leader for his old village. Priceless.

He looked over at his beverage before looking at Sakura, "Could you get that for me, please? I'm a little thirsty, yeah."

Sakura just stared at him for a minute, like everyone else, before processing his request. She immediately grabbed the drink and brought it to his lips as he drank it slowly.

Tsunade just smirked haughtily at Jiraiya, "That was _my_ informant. He's given me more about Akatsuki then _your_ informant ever did."

Jiraiya just gawked at the boy a minute longer before responding to Tsunade, "Yeah, but he's here now. Not much use now."

Deidara was one with a big temper. He did not like to be thought as one who was utterly useless. He knew he was probably being played into giving out more information that had not been asked of him, or maybe the old codger actually thought his usefulness was up. He thanked Sakura as she put the glass down and was about to make his argument, but someone beat him to it.

"Give the guy a break! He can't move right now because someone messed with his chakra and he had to fix that! I don't see you being in the middle of Akatsuki and trying to send information to the organization's enemy," Naruto said with a huff, "You have your informant to do that and if it _is_ Itachi, which I don't doubt for a second, then he probably gives you all of three words about the place each time you meet!"

Deidara was impressed. He didn't have to even defend his honor like he would have in Akatsuki. People here saw him as a valuable asset. He inwardly smiled at that before giving Jiraiya a cocky grin.

"Fine," The old man pouted, "gang up against an old man. If you need me I will be off researching."

From what Tsunade had told Deidara, that probably meant peaking on girls at bathhouses.

As Jiraiya took the finishing bites of his meal and headed out, Tsunade was sure to get one last word in the conversation.

"Don't let me catch you at the hot springs you old pervert, or what I did to you the first time I caught you will look like a walk in the park." She warned.

"Yes Hime…" Jiraiya strained as he left the room.

The conversation after that was light, Deidara was using it as a chance to understand this mix-mashed family that was now his. By the time the food was gone and the half an hour of lounging had passed, Naruto's patience had run out.

"Hey Baa-chan, when are you going to give me my assignment?" Naruto asked finally.

"Oh yeah," Tsunade said with a fake surprised look, "I haven't given it to you yet."

Shizune was trying not to laugh as Tsunade handed over a scroll, which Naruto opened greedily… before his face dropped into a frown.

"These are titles to books…"

"Yes," Tsunade said as she stood up, "Books you need to read. I know you don't do good with reading, but maybe Sakura can help you when you get stuck."

Deidara seemed to notice both Sakura and Naruto exchange a funny look when they read the titles. Sakura obviously didn't know what to say, but Naruto looked even more speechless. Deidara managed to glance at a couple titles.

The first couple were history books. No wonder the boy looked upset.

Deidara withheld the sigh that wanted to make its way out of his mouth as he looked at Naruto, "You know, I haven't read these books either, yeah. Since I am new to Konoha, I think it might be important to learn about the village. So… I can help you go over them, yeah."

Naruto looked over at Deidara in amazement, "Really?"

"Yeah, but just remember that I'm going to be learning as well," Deidara said as he looked at the other blond, "So don't think I'll know everything about Konoha, yeah."

"Cool," Naruto beamed as he looked at Deidara, "Then I'll definitely have to show you around the best spots in Konoha when you are feeling better."

"I'd like that," Deidara said with a nod.

Naruto was so happy that he hopped off to go get the books while Tsunade and Shizune took the plates and excused themselves since the Hokage had to work.

Soon it was just Sakura and Deidara. She smiled at him happily.

"That was really sweet of you to help Naruto," She said.

Deidara just looked down at his hands and gave he a small smile.

"What can I say? He defended my honor as a shinobi even though he doesn't really like me all too much, yeah."

"The one thing about Naruto," Sakura said as she sat on his bed, "Is that he doesn't hold grudges very long. He's still wary of you, but you have earned his respect. Just don't be too surprised when he starts thinking of you as an older brother."

Quickly, Sakura helped Deidara lay back down again into his very comfortable bed. And with that, Sakura excused herself to go help Naruto find a couple books. Knowing him, she said he was trying to get _all_ the in one go.

Deidara looked up at the ceiling and gave a small smile. He was enjoying himself. From what he had gleamed during the meal, Naruto wasn't as big as an idiot as he showed himself to be. The boy was naturally observant, good at making arguments. He was a little poor on good speaking skills, but that would change.

Deidara could see what that kid could be.

He could really be Hokage if he just had a few more things.

And to Deidara, defending another's honor was really up there on the list. It was easy to tear a person down, but to acknowledge their hard work, no matter how minute the outcome was, was admirable.

And even though he didn't fully trust Naruto yet, he had decided this.

The boy was to learn from him.

He would help make this brat become what he wanted to be and Deidara would do it piece by piece if he had to.

And just like what he had subconsciously done with Sakura, he categorized Naruto as his own. Not just in the category of family like Shizune or Tsunade…

His own; as in no one else would harm the boy with him there or use him like a puppet. Just like he had decided with Sakura. This was his family and he would go to hell and back for them.

* * *

Did I ever mention I like reviews? My goal is still 100 reviews! 10 more to go!!! Whoot! really... that is a lot of reviews for one chapter! Let's see if this one won't his 100 before From Under the Kage's Hat

...

So here are some things I would like you to answer:

**Did you like it?**

**How many of you are already liking where this is going?**

**How did you like how I portrayed Naruto?**

**How did you like Deidara's end thoughts?**

**Anything _special_**** you want me to add later on?**

Here is the translations so far:

(Dat)_Tebayo: Naruto's japanese catch phrase... not sure it really means believe it. Someone told me it didn't mean anything though- like Gozoro._

_Kure-Tori: Clay bird_

_Shishou: master_

_obasan: Aunt_

_Baa-san or Baa-chan: old lady or grandma_

Please tell me what you think so far!!

Ja Ne

Volleys-chan


	8. Lessons to be Learned

Hey everyone! I am back!!!!

Here is the latest installment of Kure-Tori.

Now just to set things straight, this is multi-character. The plot does not revolve entirely around just Deidara and just Sakura's relationship. It has to do with a lot more. Their relationship is just the main pairing as well as the story is from their focal points.

I have not said anything about any other pairings. Be clear on that. I said that Hinata had a crush on Naruto, not that they would get together. I know, hate me, but it has been overused _way_ too much and I want this to be a little different. Don't worry, I'll give her a happy ending. Just I don't know with who.

Naruto is going to get smart and fast. Just to give you a heads up, he will be using shadow clones to learn and so he speeds up the process _that_ way. But he has a lot more to learn then he initially thought. He will be learning for many chapters to come on different things as well as Deidara and Sakura.

But for now:

Enjoy

* * *

**_Kure-Tori_**

Chapter 8

_Lessons to be Learned  


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_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, yeah. Or it would be totally different! Dattebayo!**

* * *

Deidara sighed again as he stared at the ceiling. Darkness had invaded the room a good two hours ago when the sun had set and Sakura had turned out the lights after dragging Naruto away from his room so he could get some sleep.

He couldn't sleep.

He had closed his eyes and feigned sleep as long as he could, but he just couldn't sleep. Before, Sakura had put him under and he never noticed until now that he could not sense chakra. Sensing chakra required one to use their chakra, which he could not do at this time. So every sound kept him awake and alert.

After hearing another creak coming from the floorboards expanding, he finally used all the strength he could muster and sat up. He turned on a lamp and looked about with a weary gaze before grabbing one of the zillion of books Naruto had brought into his room to study.

Naruto had been hard to sit with at first because he would squirm around, but after Deidara instructed him to find some clay in the desk drawer and mold it while they talked, he was able to focus better.

In one day, they had gone over a vast amount of things that Naruto should have known. They had skipped the history for now and Deidara concentrated on letters and numbers.

Naruto, to his disbelief, didn't know a lot of kanji. He said he just guessed at what they meant with the words he did know. Deidara put a stop to that immediately.

The teenager would have tried to rip out his hair at the thought of a sixteen year old not knowing their letters or basic grammar, but he couldn't muster up the strength. He managed to rub his temples as he thought up the solution.

"Go," he had ordered, pointing at the door with one hand, "get as many empty scrolls as you can as well as dictionaries and as many grammar books. Use Kage Bushin. Make the clones the grammar books and practice your letters in the scrolls. Use up to fifty if you can, just learn this and learn this now."

Naruto had gone and done exactly as he was directed and soon Deidara's large room was filled with clones and some more clones were in other rooms studying.

Then Deidara decided to quiz the boy on other subjects just to get a feel for him. On occasion, the clones would come in and ask questions. Not stupid questions or nonsense blabbering like Tobi, but good questions that needed direction. If Deidara didn't know, he would send the clones to Sakura.

She had nearly had a heart attack the first time they all had come up to her, but after asking 'what the hell is going on here and you two better not be up to trouble', she would answer their questions without a second thought. She eventually ended up sitting on one corner of Deidara's bed as Naruto sat next to Deidara as they went over the context of the books.

She had been reading her thick medic books happily listening to the two talk endlessly.

One question had caught him by surprise though. He even noticed, out of the corner of his eye, Sakura lift up her head to listen.

"How did you get so smart, Deidara?" Naruto had asked him after he answered another question Naruto didn't know, "Did you have a lot of teachers to teach you all of this stuff?"

Deidara just shook his head before answering the other blonde.

"You and me are very similar, yeah. It is rare to find a person who is very observant to everything around them. I have been alone for a very long time. I had to learn for survival, yeah. Most of my knowledge is trial and err, but some is from knowing the basics and applying it where I need to."

Naruto had stared at him for a moment with that fox like expression of thoughtfulness, but then went back to asking questions.

Eventually it had become lunch, which soon became dinner, and Sakura had finally been able to drag Naruto out saying he had worn out Deidara enough for one day.

But Deidara just couldn't sleep. He ran his fingers through his hair as he cast a glance at the history book he had grabbed.

"Might as well, yeah," Deidara said as he opened it up and began to read.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

Naruto was eager the very moment he had woken up. Last night after Sakura had dragged him to bed, he released all his bushin and passed out and slept through the night.

He was very excited to know all those words and now have an understanding that he never had before.

He didn't know if Deidara would be awake yet, since the sun had yet to rise, but Naruto was too excited to learn to lay in bed. So he dressed himself and quietly headed to Deidara's bedroom to retrieve one of the books to see how much he had learned.

What a surprise to see Deidara sitting up with bags under his eyes looking at the other blonde who had quietly opened up the sliding door.

"Shouldn't you be asleep, 'tebayo?" Naruto asked as he looked at the time on the clock next to Deidara's bed.

"Shouldn't you be asleep, yeah?" Deidara shot back as he returned to the history book that was almost finished.

"I woke up early," Naruto said as he closed the door after entering the room, "You look like you haven't slept at all."

Deidara just squirmed a bit, but didn't reply. His eyes glued to the pages of the book.

"You… didn't sleep… did you?" Naruto asked as he sat on the other side of the bed.

"Nope," Deidara said with a sigh, knowing Naruto wasn't going to drop it until he told him, "I couldn't sleep, yeah."

"You look tired enough to sleep though," Naruto shot back with a pout on his face, "So why are you still awake?"

Deidara muttered something under his breath as he turned the page of the book just to see the end notes.

"I didn't catch that," Naruto said as he leaned in closer.

"I said, I can't sense chakra. I don't feel safe without being able to do that, thus I cannot sleep, yeah."

The blush was evident on Deidara's face even with the soft lighting. He was embarrassed to be so vulnerable. Naruto knew the nineteen year old hated it. He noticed it during the many events that had him go and get books and supplied instead of Deidara.

"…Oh…" Naruto said, immediately quiet before speaking again, "I'll stay in here if that makes you feel better."

"Obaasan and Sakura will wonder what you're doing in my room so early, yeah." Deidara grumbled as he finally looked up from his book.

"I'll just get back to my room before they wake up. We're ninjas. They are like clockwork when it comes to waking and sleeping unless the mission demands otherwise."

Naruto was amazed at how well spoken he had said that. Usually he would have said something like 'They won't wake up till they have to. And I'll be back in my room before they even get up to check on you.'

"Books are helping," Deidara noted with a nod before adding, "As long as you don't get them worried over this, please, do that."

"Sure," Naruto said before hopping up and grabbing one of the novels he was suppose to read, "I'll just be reading. Go to sleep."

Deidara nodded before slipping back down into the laying position and closed his eyes. He didn't even realize how tired he was until he fell asleep in the matter of seconds.

Naruto on the other hand had waited for Deidara to fall asleep before summoning ten clones. He had kept his voice low and ordered them to go about the books and continue practicing. He also told them to dispel themselves one at a time to see if that would help the brain rush he got every time their knowledge came back to him.

Each went about their work and would dispel themselves after they finished their work. Naruto only made more when they did.

He smirked as he thought about being right. One at a time didn't make him woozy at all.

Time went by quickly and soon Naruto had all his clones dispel and he headed back into his room to catch a half an hour worth of sleep before getting breakfast ready. He knew Tsunade would be up in a matter of ten minutes.

Quietly, he snuck out of Deidara's room, making sure the other blonde was still asleep before getting back in bed and resting before the day officially began.

* * *

Sakura stretched as she rose from her bed. It was still early in the morning, but she had a lot of things she needed to do before she was stuck indoors all day watching over Deidara.

Not that he was a bother.

It was amazing listening to him as he helped Naruto make sense of everything. He was able to say things just so precise that Naruto could understand. What even amazed her was his insight on how to keep the usually restless blonde concentrated.

Clay.

Ordinary molding clay that didn't grime up a person's hands.

Once Naruto's hands were busy, he took off like a rocket educational wise.

Why didn't anyone else think of that?

Probably because that was how Deidara learned how to concentrate.

Sakura couldn't help but smile at her thoughts as she showered in her bathroom.

She was really proud of Naruto. He really came a long way in just one day. Over seven books and that was with Deidara summarizing them and then telling different clones to read each book once they got done just to make sure Naruto would remember.

All to quickly, her shower ended and she dried herself and readied herself for the day. Her hair was still wet when she went outside, noticing the coolness of the morning air helped clear any grogginess she had. Tsunade was up as well and heading out the main gate.

"Shishou," Sakura whispered as she caught up with her master.

"Ah, good morning Sakura, how are things?" Tsunade asked as the two exited the compound and began to walk on the still empty streets, "Did Naruto do well with the books I gave him?"

"He is with Rei's help," Sakura replied with a smile, "But you already knew that, didn't you?"

Tsunade grinned as she stared at her pupil, "Rei has a tendency to help when she feels like it. If Naruto had gained some respect, which I didn't doubt for a second after Jiraiya and his rude comments, then Rei would help. She would help me with my paperwork just to pass the day away when she was still following me around. By the way, you had better get back before she wakes, she-"

"Hates being alone." Sakura said, finishing off the other woman's sentence, "I know, Shishou, I just need to run to the library and pick up a few things, then get some more groceries, and then straight back. She probably won't be up for another half an hour or so."

Tsunade just nodded and looked at her student, "My ANBU reported that she was up most of the night last night."

Sakura's head snapped over to look at her teacher, "What?"

"Apparently, around dawn Naruto came in for a book, but ended up discovering Rei awake. From what they could hear without giving themselves away, Rei couldn't sleep because she couldn't sense chakra and it unnerved her."

Sakura looked panicked at the thought of Deidara not getting enough rest. He was prone to illnesses in his weakened state and not getting enough sleep would lower in immunity even more. It was what Tsunade said next that kept her from going back and giving him a good check up right then and there.

"She's asleep now. Naruto stayed with her for the rest of the morning and read while she rested. For now, let's not let them know we have caught on. It's good for their relationship."

"But her immunity-"

"You'll just have to be super careful with her then. Give her a couple check-ups a day and make sure everything is alright. Give her all her vitamin pills and mineral pills and just keep a really close eye on her. If she starts to get sleepy, kick Naruto out, create a clone to help him if he gets stuck, and tell her to take a nap without leaving her alone. You're the one who's currently in charge so remind them of that if they start giving you lip."

Sakura nodded before Tsunade made a turn to head for work.

"Oh," Tsunade said with one last thought, "Tell Naruto that it's only you three for breakfast. Sai might show up later, knowing him, but until then no worries."

"Alright," Sakura said as she waved goodbye, "See you at dinner Shishou!"

With that the two parted ways and Sakura headed off to the library. Of course, to the public, the building was currently closed, but to Sakura or any other shinobi with the keys, it was twenty-four hour access.

During her beginning chuunin months, she had been assigned to the library in order to get her familiar with the system. Now, she had a copy of the keys and was allowed to take whatever she pleased as long as she signed them out properly, which of course she did.

She decided to take out a couple books for her, Naruto, and Deidara, so that it wasn't all work all the time.

So as she scanned the book titles she was surprised to see a book written by Jiraiya.

_'Probably some of that smut he writes,'_ Sakura thought as she pulled it out to read the back.

From what the rating was on the back, it wasn't.

"Wow, Jiraiya-san writes more then smut? That's a surprise," Sakura said, but decided to open it up and take a look at the beginning.

_Naruto_. That was the name of the hero. Sakura flipped the book to the beginning to see when it had been published.

Way before Naruto had been born.

"So if… then… what?" Sakura said to herself as she looked at the book again.

It didn't make sense. Someone obviously named Naruto after the character from the book and Jiraiya was aware of it or he would keep making cracks about it to Naruto. Something didn't add up, but Sakura decided giving the book to Naruto would excite him.

Soon she was hunting down more books. She had discovered the ones that she wanted, but now she was once again looking for Deidara and Naruto. It would have been easier just to ask them, but then again Naruto would probably ask what a library was. So it was just easier this way.

Finally she had pulled out a book about the Valley of the End. She didn't know why, but she put it with the rest of the books and continued on without once thinking of Sasuke. She hummed lightly to herself as she grabbed a couple more books before signing them out and heading to the market that was now just opening.

The streets were still quiet as she bought the things they needed from a 24-hour store, making sure that nothing was already opened or expired and headed home. No one was there to bother her and she was able to get in before she knew Ino was up and about.

If that blonde got wind of her living with Naruto and another male, the platinum would never let her hear the end of it.

She sighed in relief as she closed to main gate's door and was safe within the compound.

Sakura made her way into the kitchen that they used just to hear Naruto banging around in the pantry, pulling out things for breakfast.

"Morning Naruto," Sakura said as she set down the grocery bags.

Naruto turned around and smiled at her once he saw the bags, "Morning Sakura-chan, thanks for getting those. I didn't even know you were up yet."

"Yeah, I've been up since six," Sakura said as she set all the books on the table, "I wanted to get out before Deidara got up. Is he awake yet? I need to give him a check up to see how he's doing so far."

Naruto just shrugged as he started to pull out the groceries, "I haven't checked. You might want to do that while I'm making breakfast, dattebayo."

"Yeah, I'll do that now then," Sakura agreed before remembering the book, "Oh, Naruto. I went to the library and found the strangest thing."

"What? A book written by Jiraiya that wasn't smut?" Naruto joked with a small laugh.

"Exactly that," Sakura said with a serious look on her face, "And the main character has _your_ name."

Naruto paused a moment before looking up at her with a confused face, "When did he write it?"

"Several years before you were born," Sakura replied as she pulled out the book and set it on top, "Maybe you should read it. I don't know it looked… different then the rest of the books the man's wrote."

"Yeah," Naruto agreed as he walked over to it and picked it up, "I probably will."

Sakura left him standing there looking at the book to go and check on Deidara. She quickly grabbed some utensils she would need to give him a non-chakra using check up to make sure he was okay.

After wrapping the stethoscope around her neck, she headed over to his room to check. She didn't knock, but she flared her chakra out of habit. She gently opened the door getting a mumbled 'good morning' out of Deidara who looked like he just woke up.

"Good morning," Sakura whispered as she walked into the room, dodging large stack of books that took over the room, "How are you this morning?"

"Sleepy, yeah," Deidara yawned as he tried to sit up.

Sakura beat him to it and helped prop him up before he would expend his energy before the day even started.

"I need to give you a quick check up, Tsunade reminded me that your immunity is low, so we can't be wearing you out," Sakura said as she sat on his bed looking at him with a smile, "So let's get started before Naruto comes in with breakfast."

Deidara just nodded as he rubbed his left eye sleepily. Sakura just began to do a small check up, asking if he was sleeping well and such as she worked.

He lied, of course, but she never acted like she didn't believe him. After pulling the thermometer out of his mouth and reading the temperature, she clarified the check up done for now.

"You're tired still, go back to sleep," Sakura said when she caught him rubbing his eyes again.

"No, I'm good, yeah," Deidara tried, but she looked unconvinced.

"Then you are going down for a nap after breakfast," Sakura said as she got up and moved a couple books off of his bedside table, "Let's get your vitamins and minerals in you right now before Naruto comes in with breakfast."

He took them slowly, eating more as Sakura handed them to him. She herself was going through all his pills and tablets on the table. She turned around expecting to get at least one complaint about how nasty some of the pills tasted, but Deidara had dozed off again. She smiled ruefully as she sat next to him and slowly laid him back down without waking him.

He was so tired from not getting enough sleep that he probably didn't remember that he had ANBU watching him and telling Tsunade if anything was wrong. The idiot, trying to hide something like this.

About ten minutes after she had laid him down, she noticed him beginning to mumble some things and instinctively reached out and petted his hair as a way to calm him. He was dreaming already.

His face screwed together as he began to whimper words that sounded terrified, so Sakura began to run her fingers through his hair and whisper things that sounded right, like 'It's okay, it's only a dream,' and 'Sakura's here, it's only a dream.'

His mumbling died away after a bit and he finally entered blissful sleep, having his expression smooth out and his breathing evened out better.

That must have been the beginnings of night terrors that Tsunade had warned her about when she first met Deidara. She continued to run her fingers through his hair as she thought about it.

Usually, it could end up in him crying out to whoever was in the dream to stop, but this time, with Sakura, it didn't get that far. Sakura sighed as she readied herself to check on Naruto, who was suppose to be in here by now with breakfast, and tell him not to bring it for a while.

She quickly rested her hand on his forehead, a habit she had from being a medic, before getting up and exiting the room. She shut the door gently and walked back into the kitchen.

"Naruto," Sakura started to say, but never finished because of what she found.

Breakfast was still unmade and the short-haired blonde had his nose stuck in the book. He didn't even seem to notice her that was how involved he was with his book.

"Naruto," Sakura tired again, this time startling the boy.

"Oh, sorry Sakura-chan, I was just reading the beginning but is was really good, 'tebayo." The blonde apologized as he began to get up, "I'll get working on breakfast right now."

"No need," Sakura said as she stopped him from getting all the way up, "Deidara fell asleep again. He looks really fatigued, so let's put off breakfast for a bit."

"Alright," Naruto happily agreed as he opened the book again, "I'll just be reading."

Sakura laughed at the thought. Never before would anyone _ever_ think that Naruto would say such a sentence.

* * *

It was midday when Deidara actually looked at the books that Sakura had retrieved for him. He and Naruto were taking a break and lounging a bit since they had just had lunch and Sakura wasn't too interested in picking up her own reading just yet, so they had all be chatting about random subjects.

That was when Sakura had mentioned the books she had picked up for him. He hadn't noticed them earlier since he had been very drowsy, but now he was interested. He picked up the one on top and looked at the cover name '_The Battle at the Valley of the End'_. It seemed promising. Very rare according to Sakura since it had actual pictures of both Uchiha Madara and the Shodai.

Deidara opened it up to the very page with the pictures. They were faded, old, but there on the paper was a face he could never forget…

It was the face of his attacker.

Sakura and Naruto became worried as he fell silent and his eyes were glued to the page. It wasn't until he started trembling and his face paled did both of them jump into action.

"Deidara," Sakura asked as she neared him and touched his head gently with her hand, "What's the matter?"

"Please," his voice cracked, he looked up and Sakura noticed the tears beginning to fill his eyes, "I need to talk to Obaasan, yeah… I need to talk to Obaasan."

"Naruto," Sakura said as she looked his way, but he was already out the door and heading to the Hokage's office, leaving Sakura to handle Deidara.

His breaths were beginning to become uneven as he fought off the tears. His aura drowned in negative emotions. Sakura sat on his bed, close to him and pulled his head to rest on her shoulder as she began to stroke his hair. He wrapped his arms around her and tried to pull her close, but couldn't because he was too weakened. Sakura just scooted close to oblige.

She continued to just stroke his hair waiting for him to cry, but he fought it. She didn't know why, but he refused to cry.

So finally she said something, "Deidara, it's alright to cry. It's alright to cry. I cry at times too, you know that. It's not good to hold it all inside, just let it out. Get it off your chest."

Finally she felt the hot tears soaking into her shirt as he began to sob quietly into her shoulder, holding her as close as he could as if she was his only comfort.

He wasn't able to compose himself by the time Tsunade came into the room.

"What happened? What's wrong?" Tsunade questioned worriedly as she walked up to Sakura and Deidara.

"Here," Deidara croaked as he tired to hold back to sob stuck in his throat, "This-" he motioned at the book that Sakura had gotten him. "- open it to… to the page with… with the pictures…"

Tsunade did as she was told and turned to that section of the book and showed it to him. He winced a bit as he pointed to Uchiha Madara.

"Him." He whimpered, "That is the face of the man who… the man who attacked me… yeah."

Tsunade dropped the book, "Are you sure Deidara? Uchiha Madara was a founding father of Konoha, he would be over one hundred years old."

Sakura looked worriedly at Deidara as he nodded. He tried to compose himself, but was still too upset to be able to.

"Yes… I will never forget that… that face." He said as he choked back another round of tears.

"I believe you," Tsunade said with a saddened look, "We'll talk more about it another time. Thank you for telling me, Deidara."

She got up and looked at Naruto who was standing at the door with a worried look, "Come Naruto, I am going to show you the process of writing a proper report."

Naruto didn't argue with her and instead just followed her out wordlessly, but not before casting Sakura a glance. One that pleaded for her to help the older teen. She nodded as she began to stroke his hair again and soon the two where left alone.

She just continued to stroke his hair and began to hum to him gently as she let him cry quietly. She didn't know how long it had been when she finally began to talk, as a way to calm him down.

"I'm so sorry that happened to you," She started as she rested her head on top of his and continued to run her fingers through his long, soft hair, "It really isn't fair that it had to be you. I was told as a kunoichi that it sometimes ruins one's thoughts of love. I hope you aren't confused on that subject."

"I don't understand what love is, yeah. What is love, what is lust? It all mashes together to me." Deidara said with a cracked voice, not looking up from his spot.

"Lust," Sakura started, "is wanting something that can never be yours, sometimes even taking it. Lust is between a married woman and another man who is not her husband. Lust is what men that go into the red light district feed off of… But love… love is pure. It is gentle and caring and does not take what is not available.

It is the feeling of devotion and fullness. There are several kinds of love though. There is the love of friends, who will always have your back and care for you in times of need. There is the love of siblings, which like Naruto and I, we care for each other more then just friends, but not enough to be something more. Siblings have a deep understanding of the other and even though they bicker and fight and might yell words they don't mean, they will always love the other. Then, there is the parent-child love. It is different for each child and parent relationship since each child holds different things close to their heart. It is special and a bond only a parent can form with a child."

Sakura took a deep breath as she thought of the last category she had for love, "Then there are lovers. People who truly love each other so deeply that they would do anything for the other… anything. They are happy when the other is happy, sad with the other is sad… they are like two halves of a whole circle. I use to think that Sasuke was in that category, but then I realized he was like a brother to me… along with Naruto… but then he went and tried to sever those ties, but he doesn't understand he didn't and it just makes it hurt more that he even tried to…"

Deidara's breathing started to even out a bit as the tears stopped flowing, Sakura moved her hand from stroking his hair to rubbing his back as she lifted her head a bit to look at him.

"You know," Sakura decided to end her little speech on this note, "Lust is like a cheap imitation of love. It is shallow and cold. But love is deep and passionate. You will _know_ when you are in love with someone, because of how different it feels from lust."

He lifted his head to look at her with those deep ocean blue eyes as he asked her a question, "What category am I in, yeah? Or am I even in a category…"

Sakura just sighed as she stopped her rubbing and pulled her hands back. She looked him square eyes as she answered, "I don't know."

He seemed to think she meant something different then what she really meant by the way his head sunk, but Sakura didn't want to end it like that.

She use a hand to lift up his chin and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead. She then kissed his temples before kissing both eyelids that closed right before she kissed them by impulse.

She pulled away to look at his confused face with a gentle smile, "I don't know what category of love you're in whether it be friend, sibling, or lover, but Deidara, know this now: I do love you."

Silence filled the air as Deidara nodded solemnly.

"I love you as well, Sakura, yeah."

There were no need for anymore words. Sakura laid him back to rest on pillow and whispered for him to try and sleep a bit, promising to stay close to him. She pulled up his blankets and fluffed his pillow.

He closed his eyes and allowed sleep to come, but not before he felt the light pressure of Sakura's lips on his forehead. Sleep came easily for once and the dreams were nothing but of Sakura, Naruto, Tsunade, Shizune, and his new life in Konoha.

* * *

Thank you for all the wonderful Reveiws!!! I have officially reached over 100 and hope to receive more of your input!

...

So here are some things I would like you to answer:

**Did you like it?**

**How many of you are already liking where this is going?**

**How did you like how I did the chapter?**

**How did you like the ending? With the comforting?**

**Anything _special_**** you want me to add later on?**

Here is the translations so far:

(Dat)_Tebayo: Naruto's japanese catch phrase... not sure it really means believe it. Someone told me it didn't mean anything though- like Gozoro._

_Kure-Tori: Clay bird_

_Shishou: master_

_obasan: Aunt_

_Baa-san or Baa-chan: old lady or grandma_

Please tell me what you think so far!!

Ja Ne

Volleys-chan


	9. The Value of Worth

Hey everyone! I am back!!!!

Here is the latest installment of Kure-Tori.

Now just to set things straight, this is multi-character. The plot does not revolve entirely around just Deidara and just Sakura's relationship. It has to do with a lot more. Their relationship is just the main pairing as well as the story is from their focal points.

So I want you to all know one really important thing: FluffyKeira is awesome and betaed my story. She is the writer of an amazing DeiSaku story called 'Art of Destruction'. Seriously, go read it. Right now I'm dying for the update (which is late . _cries to herself_).

Another good story to go put a bunch of reviews on is 'From Leaf to Flower'. Seriously, if you aren't reading it, your missing out on some cute stuff. Deidara was finally added and it is super cute!

So now for the finishing touches: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! You helped me slay the writers block and finish writing this chapter. It was hard because I didn't know how to write this one scene, but I finished it! I hope to get a lot of input from you about this!

But for now:

Enjoy.

* * *

**_Kure-Tori_**

Chapter 9

_The Value of Worth  


* * *

_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, yeah. Or it would be totally different! Dattebayo!**

* * *

The rest of the week went off without a hitch. Naruto had been nervous at first, worried about how Deidara would be when he came back later that day with Tsunade, but one good sarcastic comment from the blond artist calmed the younger teen right down.

Deidara and Tsunade had talked about what he had just learned, and he decided it would be a good idea to write a full report about everything he knew about Akatsuki with sketches and blueprints included into the report.

He didn't even know why he was going into such detail, or so he thought in the beginning. He could have kept it short and sweet, but the more he began to think about it, the more he began to add.

In Akatsuki, all he had ever been was the arsonist, not an artist or even an invaluable asset, just the arsonist. Only on occasion was he ever used more than just the guy that wiped out villages in one big bang. He was rarely seen by others since he had kept to the sky, so with a slight altercation, he looked like a female and was able to flirt information from men, though he would get severely drunk afterwards before jumping into a cold shower to wash away the grime he felt.

He had been wasted there. All he ever got was disrespect. Hidan constantly made fun of his feminine appearance. Itachi thought he was better than everyone else just because of those eyes. Sasori- though he was a fellow artist- scoffed at his ideas even and preferred to keep a distant between himself and the blonde. They were fine together, but that was the extent of their relationship.

Leader constantly wasted his time and dismissed the other skills that he brought to the table, preferring men like Kisame- who looked bigger and stronger- or Zetsu- who was intimidating and sneaky- to do the job. Deidara knew that they missed important details, but decided not to mention it because of the fact he didn't like the place anyways.

But when he first met Tsunade, he felt something. She needed him. He knew that. She had stuck her neck out there when he was still on the enemy's side and asked him to help her. She saw more then what Akatsuki saw, he could tell by the gleam in her eye. So he had said yes.

Each time he sent one of those birds, he would activate a special jutsu that allowed him to see through his creations eyes. Tsunade-obaasan always smiled happily when she saw the bird and _always_ thanked it, even though she didn't know he could know. It had made his heart jump with excitement, someone actually thought him valuable.

When he had been discovered that day, he was in the middle of warning her about something, but he couldn't remember it now. He was in the middle of writing something about the moon, but that was when Tobi came in. Deidara had fled the scene as quickly as he could break the powerful genjutsu, but it had been too late and now a large chunk of that important information was gone. All he knew was it had something to do with the moon.

It had surprised him when Tsunade had come through with her part of the deal, like Jiraiya had clearly stated that day at breakfast, his usefulness was up. Yet she took him in, healed his wounds, nurtured him back into some health, and introduced him to two people that would forever shake his foundations.

Sakura was the first one. She was shy at times, but was extremely caring and saw him, not as an arsonist, not as a tool, but as a person in need. She was mindful of his feelings and had comforted him on more than one occasion, though the most recent was the strongest one yet. He had decided the day she told Tsunade she would take care of him, that she was _his own_ and would not be harmed by any who tried.

Naruto was the surprising second. He was against the blonde jinchuuriki at first, since he had been after him and attacked him before, but soon he realized the boy held a grudge as long as a brick held his attention- all of three seconds. When Jiraiya had put Deidara down with his words, it was Naruto that told everyone that the bomber did indeed have worth and never to doubt it. It was then that he decided the boy would be _his own_ to guard and protect from harm. And it was because of Tsunade, because of Sakura, and even because of Naruto that he was working so hard on this report.

He would die for these people. He would die for those two, _his own_.

He usually worked on the report after everyone else had gone to bed. He would spend hours writing, until Naruto came in near one in the morning and began to do his own studies. Only then would he go to sleep, even his restless dreams searching out any tiny details that could be of use.

They had finished learning the basics quickly and now Naruto had a miniature army practicing and reading so that the list would get done quickly. From about breakfast time to almost three, Deidara and Naruto would go over the books. Then Naruto would head over to the Hokage's office so he could learn from Tsunade.

Sakura would stay by his side during these times and the two of them would just relax, completely at ease with each other's presence. Sakura would sometimes be finishing up some of her work, and Deidara just stayed quiet and watched her carefully, appreciating the small crease it her brow when she came across something she didn't like, the soft swell of her lip whenever she bit it in mild frustration.

It was around one in the morning when Naruto came into Deidara's room, his shoulders slumping tiredly. 

Deidara looked up from his huge report that looked like a novel complete with pictures and schematics, appearing uncannily like a young professor as he peered intently at Naruto through his bangs.

"Morning." Naruto mumbled as he rubbed his right eye.  

"It's getting to you." Deidara said as he stared at Naruto a bit more**, **somewhat amused at the sleepy determination before him.  

"Just a bit," Naruto said as he sat down on the floor, "I'll get used to it eventually."  

Deidara just closed his report and set it aside along with his pen and ink, "No need for that, just sleep on the other side of the bed, yeah."

He moved back so he was lying down. Closing his eyes and readying himself to sleep. Naruto just looked at him a little surprised before he double checked what he had heard.  

"So… You don't mind me sleeping next to you?"  

"Nope."

"Not at all?"  

Deidara opened an eye. "Would I be offering if I did not feel comfortable with you, yeah?"  

Naruto grinned happily as he flicked off the lights hopped onto the bed, landing on the opposite side of Deidara's side.

"Night Aniki." Naruto whispered.  

Deidara's breath hitched a bit, but soon he responded, "Good night Otouto."

* * *

Tsunade had gotten ready that morning like usual. She had picked up the habit of checking up on Deidara in the morning to see if she couldn't catch Naruto still in there so she could ask them what they were doing. She could wait for the day that they slipped up, so she decided to bring a camera with her to capture them in the act.  

She had never expected to find what she did find though. She grinned mischievously as she quietly snapped a picture of the sleeping teens and silently darted to Sakura's room. She was coming out of the bathroom, drying her damp pink hair.  

"Sakura," Tsunade whispered as she walked up to her, a diabolical smile on her features. "You have to see this."  

"See what Shishou?" Sakura whispered back wide-eyed, knowing when to follow the other's lead.  

The older woman just grinned giddily as she leaned over and whispered something into the young kunoichi's ear.  

"Do you know the difference between a cuddler and a snuggler?" She asked.  

"Wha?" Sakura replied, looking confuse.  

"Come on, just be very quiet and suppress your chakra." Tsunade whispered as she motioned Sakura to follow her, shoving the camera into her inner coat pocket.  

Sakura did as she was told, following her shishou as she was led to Deidara's room. She was about to question it, but as she peered into the room through the door that had been left open, she quickly bit her tongue to stifle the laugher.  

Tsunade's question now made sense. There was Deidara and Naruto, both doing two very different things.  

Naruto was cuddling Deidara by hugging him and resting his head gently on the ex-Akatsuki member's chest while Deidara was not only hugging Naruto, but had his face deeply buried into the younger blonde's hair, his arms clasped more tightly than Naruto's.  

So Sakura learned that Naruto was a cuddler and Deidara was a snuggler. The very thought made it almost impossible to keep from laughing out loud. Tsunade though, held a finger up to her mouth as she walked up the two boys before she began to lightly shake Deidara and in turn Naruto.  

"Wake up sweeties," Tsunade said gently so as to not alarm them.  

Sakura walked closer to watch the two react.  

"Deidara-chan, Naruto-chan, get up," Tsunade said with a small laugh that escaped her lips.  

Deidara and Naruto opened their eyes almost at the same time. Both took a moment to figure out what was going on, their sleepy eyes wide with confusion. However, as soon as they realized who they were hugging, both gave a terrified yelp and Naruto, who had somehow gotten on the other side of Deidara, rolled off the bed in an unceremonious heap.  

"What were you doing, yeah," Deidara asked rather loud and accusingly, not noticing the two women laughing their heads off at the moment.  

"What was I doing? What were you doing?!" Naruto retorted in the same terrified tone.  

"I was sleeping, yeah! How did you even get on that side? You were on the other side of the bed!"  

"I don't know! I was sleeping! That means I didn't plan it out, dattebayo! What were you doing with you face in my hair?"  

"I… I can't breathe Shishou." Sakura said as she rolled on the ground laughing.  

"Neither can I." Tsunade managed out as she bent over from laughing so hard.  

Both boys looked over at them before giving an upset shout.  

"How long have you been there?" Both asked with a blush crossing their faces.  

"Long… long enough," Tsunade said as she managed to straighten up, small spasms of laughter still wracking her voluptuous figure. 

"That was great," Sakura said already off the ground, still giggling, "How I wish I had a camera."  

"Thank Kami you didn't," Naruto said as he stood up and brushed himself off.   

"I don't need this, yeah," Deidara said as he put his pillow over his head, trying to hide his embarrassment.  

"So," Tsunade said, changing the subject, "What are you doing in Deidara's room so early in the morning?"  

"Uh… I um…" Naruto said as he backed up a bit, his hands waving in front of him, begging for the embarrassment to stop. "Well you see…"  

Deidara didn't look up or say anything. Instead he just buried him head deeper under the pillow.

"It couldn't possibly be because Deidara was having trouble sleeping, right? Because he would have come to us about that problem if he was, wouldn't he?" Sakura asked as she arched an eyebrow.  

"Yes," Tsunade chimed in rather amused, "He would know better than to keep that from us, right? Sakura-chan?"  

Both women grinned slyly as Sakura answered, "Oh I totally agree."

She turned to Naruto. "Right Naruto-kun?"  

"I… um… You both already knew, didn't you?" Naruto realized after a moment, his hands falling limply to his sides.   

Both women nodded.  

"Since the first time. I have been trying to catch you in act since." Tsunade said before growling, "What were you two thinking trying hiding something like that from us?"  

"Well… you see… we just thought…I mean… this is going to hurt, isn't it?" Naruto asked weakly as both females looked at him with that glint in their eyes.  

Deidara was still hiding under his pillow; too embarrassed of being caught doing something so… awkward; oh, and being caught lying to the two most powerful kunoichi around; and too terrified of the very same kunoichi's wrath to look up at his impending doom.

* * *

"I think I'd prefer Naruto's punishment, yeah." Deidara said as he squirmed as far back as he could, trying to dodge the spoon of vile liquid.

"The sooner you take it, the sooner you'll be done," Sakura said as she shoved the spoon into his mouth.

He gagged as he tried to swallow it, knowing the consequences would be _worse_ if he spit it out.

"No, I really would prefer Naruto's punishment. Please, no more, yeah." He looked up at her dolefully.

"This is not punishment," Sakura reminded him as she poured another spoonful, "This is to help you low immunity. It is the pure extract of a few of the more potent herbs. It's good for you."

"No," Deidara corrected her as he pulled his head away from the coming spoon, "This is punishment for lying to you and Obaasan. You wouldn't be making me take this if it wasn't true, yeah."

"We just are making sure you don't get sick, Deidara-kun," Sakura said innocently as she shoved another spoonful into his mouth, "There is no punishment since we knew about this from the start."

"Right, yeah," Deidara said as he gagged at the taste again, "How much more of this?"

"Ten more spoonfuls," Sakura said calmly.

"But I've had ten spoonfuls, yeah!"

"Then only ten left."

"Would saying I'm sorry do anything?"

"Hmmm… I don't know, give it a try."

"I'm sorry for lying to you, yeah. I won't do it again."

"Aw, thanks."

Another spoonful shoved into his mouth.

"But that doesn't mean I reduce the amount you need. Nine more."

"Aw, come on!"

* * *

"Aw, come on!" Naruto whimpered as he hugged tightly onto Tsunade's leg, "Not this!!! I will do any other punishment!!! But not this! Dattebayo!"

"What are you talking about Naruto? I'm not punishing you," Tsunade said with a sickly sweet grin, which gave Naruto the shivers. She was so sinister when she was angry. "You are merely offering your serves out of the kindness of your heart."

"But it's _Ino_! Shopping with _Ino_! Even Sakura-chan avoids this!" Naruto whined as Tsunade kept walking, dragging the protesting boy along.

"Naruto stop acting like a child," Tsunade growled as she kicked the boy off of her, sending him sprawling on the floor.

"But Baa-chan," Naruto whined, "It's _Ino_! She spends _hours_ doing it and actually hires someone to walk around to hold her bags! Please, no!!!"

"Too late," Tsunade said as she knocked on the Yamanaka head's door.

"Coming," Ino's voice called out from the other side of the door.

"Quick, before she gets here, let's leave," Naruto said as he tried to take off, only to have Tsunade grab him by the ear and pull him back.

"Oh no you don't. You are _helping _her and you will do it without complaint. Understand?" Tsunade hissed into the boy's ear, "Or so help me I _will_ punish you for real."

Naruto gulped as he let out a small, "Yes Baa-chan…"

Ino opened the door and looked at the Hokage holding onto Naruto by the ear as the blonde tried futilely to free himself.

"Hello Hokage-sama," Ino said as she looked at Naruto again, "Naruto is here for the mission I submitted."

"Yes," Tsunade said as she easily tossed Naruto right next to Ino, "Don't go easy on him."

"Alright," Ino chirped happily, "I'll have fun with him."

"I'm doomed," Naruto groaned as he began to hit his head on the door frame of her house.

* * *

It was around nine at night that day when Naruto came crawling back. He was rather nervous looking as he slipped into Deidara's room. Sakura looked up from the book she was reading; Deidara looked up from the report he was making.

"Hey, your back," Sakura said before looking back down at her book, "So how was Ino?"

"She's good," Naruto said with a nervous look, "Somehow… I ended up with a date with her."

"What," Sakura choked as she shut the book and stared at Naruto, disbelief evident on her face. "Did you just say you have a date with _Ino_ as in my best friend _Ino_?"

"You went off to get punished and landed a date, yeah?" Deidara asked sceptically.

"I guess," Naruto said as he rubbed the back of his head, "I don't really understand exactly what happened that ended me with a date."

"Well," Sakura said as she stood up and steered Naruto eagerly towards a chair, "Spill! Tell us what happened!"

"I told you I'd rather have Naruto's punishment," Deidara muttered, "But I got the nasty medicine, yeah."

"Stop complaining, the stomach ache went away after a while," Sakura said as she sat on the bed next to Deidara, giving Naruto the spot light.

"So," Deidara raised a brow, "Are you going to tell us or what, yeah?"

"Do I have to?" Naruto asked reluctantly.

"YES!" both said firmly.

"Do you want to know what you did that got you the date?" Sakura asked with an annoyed look.

"Just pretend that this is an official debriefing, yeah. Just tell it as you saw it, leave out stupid details that have nothing to do with anything but your own thoughts… Like we covered a few days ago, yeah." Deidara said as he crossed his arms.

"Okay, okay," Naruto said as he took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"It all started when Tsunade-baa-chan left me for dead in the care of Ino. I mean of all the missions she could have given me, Baa-chan had to-"

"Get to the point!" Sakura said with a scowl, "Stop getting off subject. Pick it up from where Tsunade left."

"Alright, alright. Can't a guy give his opinion, 'tebayo?" Naruto grumbled as he tried again.

"Baa-chan had just left and I was alone with Ino. She invited me in saying she needed to go grab her jacket and then we would head out. It didn't take her long and soon she was dragging me by the arm to the first shop. It was, of course, a clothes store and we spent a good hour there before she purchased her goods and dragged me to the next store. She didn't really talk to me the whole time other than 'Does this look good?' and stuff like that I didn't really answer.

It was after I think the sixth store three hours after we started when she decided to actually talk to me.

"Hey," she said to get my attention, "Do you always have to wear that same outfit?"

I didn't really get the point of why she was complaining about my outfit when she was on a shopping spree and just paying me to walk around with here while holding her bags, but she did.

"What's wrong with my clothes? They're just fine," I told her rather offended by her statement.

"Well, you just wear those ALL the time! When are you not wearing those?" Ino said as she threw her hands up in the air, clearly annoyed with me for not getting it.

It took me a minute before I replied to her, dattebayo, because I didn't ever think about it. I know Sakura-chan has more clothes in her closet and even you have more changes of clothes than me, Deidara, so I was really curious to why it mattered if I had different outfits.

"I have different clothes," I finally told her, "But they are too small for me. This is my color anyways, 'tebayo."

With that she just stared at me for a while, which made me kind of nervous, but eventually grabbed my arm and actually began to drag me somewhere!

"What are you doing?!" I asked as I tried not to trip.

The angle she was dragging me in was not very comfortable at all.

"To the men's clothes store," Ino finally answered me, "I am sick of you just wearing that ugly orange outfit and I _will_ buy you clothes if I have to."

So, I started to complain, but she wasn't listening. She pulled me into a store, shoved me into a dressing room, and told me if I came out without her consent she'd complain to Baa-chan. I was already in enough trouble with Baa-chan and I didn't want to get into more, so I did as I was told.

She came back after a while, took my forehead protector off telling me not to wear it while trying on the clothes and then told me what clothes were to go with what. Then closed the door after bossily telling me to get dressed.

So I did. I came out, showed her, went back in, redressed, showed her _again_, and kept doing it till I ran out of clothes.

Though it was strange, dattebayo, each time I came out, her eyes grew wide and I think when I tried on the last outfit I think she may have been drooling. Maybe she was hungry; I'm not sure. I finally redressed in this one and you know what she did?! She actually _bought_ some of them and told me to carry them.

She did this for five _hours_! I mean, every cloths store there was and she took me to each of them and made me try things on and then bought some! She even went to a shinobi store and bought me a couple things! I don't even get it! Then, after that, she takes me out to get BBQ and treats me to food, while smiling! I felt bad because I ate more than her! After that, it was late, so I walked her back to her house, and was about to leave, when she stopped me.

"It's late, so I'm too tried to go through the bags and pull out the ones that I bought you," Ino told me with a yawn.

"You really didn't need to buy me anything, 'tebayo," I told her, a little embarrassed that she did.

"Nonsense," She said with a strange look on her face, "You looked great in those outfits and plus, you need more variety in your life. Come back tomorrow around eleven and pick up the clothes, you are going to take me to lunch and then you are going to take me somewhere nice for a while. I like flowers and jewellery. Be there or I will hunt you down and make you take me out, Uzumaki Naruto." She looked really scary as she glared at me, proving her point I think, then she went back to that smile and said, "Goodnight, Foxy."

I stared at her door for a minute before I was able to walk away."

Naruto took a long breath and exhaled, before looking at Deidara and Sakura. Both were wide eyed and just _staring_ at him.

It was Deidara that spoke first.

"Kami! He did it and he didn't even know _how_ he landed a girl! That has to be unfair, yeah!" Deidara said as he slapped his hand over his eyes and plopped down on his pillow.

"What the hell was Ino thinking? She _never_ buys other people clothes unless it's their birthday! Naruto! What the hell did you look like that made her do that?" Sakura said as she looked at him with puzzlement.

Naruto shrugged a bit, "I don't know. I didn't really care. I just put them on and came out. I didn't look in the mirror!"

It took Sakura a moment before calming down, "Okay, that's fine. Just go into Deidara's closet and pick out a pair of jeans, a plain shirt, and maybe a mesh undershirt."

"Why my clothes?" Deidara complained as he looked at the rosette.

"Because you're the only other male in this house and though you're taller than him at least we will get a feel for what Ino might have seen. Naruto, leave your forehead protector off as well."

Naruto just looked at Deidara for a minute before getting a nod of approval. It wasn't like the younger blond would be keeping them anyways.

Naruto opened up the closet and stared at it wide eyed, "Geez! How many clothes do you have? This has to be more then Sakura and I both!"

"Really?" Sakura said as she got off the bed and walked into the walk in closet before yelling out to Deidara as well, "What the hell? You do have more clothes then me. I think you even outdo _Ino_ on her best day!"

Deidara scowled at his closet, where the other two were currently ogling his clothes and gave a huff, "I _like_ variety. Plus a good third of those had been worn once or twice in recon missions, yeah. I just didn't have the heart to throw them out afterwards."

Sakura came back out holding an elegant kimono that was a deep shade of red and about her size, "You have to let me borrow this!"

"What?" Deidara said as he propped himself up, "Do I look like a girl that you can trade clothes with?"

"No, you look like a boy who has the cutest stash of kimonos in his closet," Sakura said as she snuggled the kimono, "Please?"

Deidara didn't last too long with that look she was giving him, "Fine. I'll help resize it for you…"

"Yay!" Sakura yipped, "You're the best Dei-kun!"

Deidara was glad she dashed back into his closet so she didn't see the blush that brightened his face.

Sakura came out a couple minutes later, sitting back down next to Deidara who had just schooled in his expression and waited for Naruto to come back out.

He did a couple minutes later wearing Deidara's ripped up jeans, rolling then up at the bottom so he didn't trip, and a simple black tank top that he tucked in, wearing a mesh underneath.

Sakura and Deidara stared.

"That was the look! That was the one she had right when she looked at me in an outfit for the first time!" Naruto said as he pointed at them, "What's that look for anyways?"

"Kami, Naruto," Sakura said as she gulped, her eyes still wide from the shock. "If you wear _anything_ like that in public, you'll have a fan girl following worse than Sasuke."

Naruto just looked at her like she had lost her mind. "Why would that happen?"

Sakura rolled her eyes as she realized she was going to be forced to say it, "You look hot Naruto! Better then Sasuke on his best day! Believe me, I've seen him with his shirt off and even _that_ doesn't compare to you right now! Do I need to say more?"

Naruto finally looked in the mirror, "I don't get it. Orange looks better."

Deidara and Sakura just groaned.

* * *

Sakura glanced in quickly to check up on Deidara. She was heading out soon and wanted to make sure the blond bomber was doing well.

After yesterday, Tsunade had used an old method of lulling Deidara to sleep; filling up his stomach with a warm meal and then giving him a large glass of warm milk. It had worked like a charm, though she had heard Deidara mumbling something under his breath beforehand. Something along the lines of 'she's trying to get me fat, yeah'.

He went out like a light soon after that, almost comically fast. His light snores could be heard coming from his room from the hall.

Sakura sighed as she looked at his figure lying helplessly in bed. He was sleeping, but not without thrashing about, whimpering a bit and mumbling words. His pretty golden hair clung to his frowning brow as he turned his head from side to side anxiously. Sakura was about to go ease his dream when a hand snatched her arm and pulled her out of Deidara's room, the door closing quietly.

Sakura spun around to see who it was.

"Naruto," She hissed angrily as she looked at the whisker marked blonde. "What the hell?"

"You'll wake him." Naruto said a little uncharacteristically. His eyes were serious as he gazed at her steadily, the grim look in his eyes making her double-take. "He's trying to recollect any information he can about Akatsuki. Waking him up will just cause him problems and embarrassment."

Sakura's eyes widened as she looked back at the door, her anger forgotten, "Why is he doing that?"

Naruto sighed as he ran a hand though his hair. It was too early for this. "Because, he found his precious people."

And with that, Naruto walked off and headed to the nearest sofa to read the book that was in his hand, the one written by Jiraiya. Sakura just stood there a bit more before she could finally move. She began to walk on autopilot as she wandered down the streets to make her usual rounds.

'_Deidara has found his precious people?'_ She was confused she had never thought of something like that before. She had heard Naruto speak about it beforehand, but cast it off as his usual ramblings- like being the next Hokage.

But something about himhad changed. He was becoming more astute the more he listened and learned from Deidara. He could sit and read books when not even a month ago he struggled to read a sentence. It made all the more sense now that she finally was thinking about it.

She too had precious people- though she didn't call them that. They were those she slipped into special categories. People she knew, good friends, close friends, and family. Those higher on the category list made her work harder to protect. Family came first- those like Naruto, Shizune, and Tsunade- with close friends coming in close- Ino, Tenten, and Hinata- and going down from there. She wouldn't know that to do with herself if one of her close ones died.

'_Because, he found his precious people.'_

The thought echo in her head. Her brows furrowed together as she thought. Where was Deidara in all this? She had yet to place him anywhere.

Her heart throbbed a bit in guilt. She knew he was up there, but she didn't think she could place him as _just_ family or _just_ close friends. They didn't fit. She sighed to herself as she just thought on it harder.

Where did Deidara belong in her heart?

Her thoughts were broken when she heard as small mew and felt something rub affectionately against her leg. She looked down to see a small cat purring as it looked up at her with silver eyes. It was almost black color to the cat's fur, but what kept her from thinking the fur was black was the even darker black strips that decorated its coat.

"Well hello there kitty." Sakura said with a smile, she loved animals.

The cat let out another quiet mew as it nuzzled her foot. She laughed lightly as she played with it a bit, letting it gently bite her hand, before it licked her adoringly.

"Aren't you a cute little cat," She said affectionately as she played with its tail.

The cat pawed gently at her hand in a playful manner. It made Sakura giggle to see how loving the cat was.

"Well I'll be-" Someone said from the front of a store.

Sakura looked up to see the store manager looking at her in surprise. He made his surprise clear as he looked down at the cat.

"That has got to be the first time since that cat was born that it let a human touch him so willy-nilly."

"Really?" Sakura asked as she petted it again, enjoying the velvety feel of its head under her hand. "He looks like a people's cat."

"He's not. He was born from a litter of stray cats that lived in the alley over yonder. His mother was the strangest cat. He's got to be at least way over ten years old by now, but still as spry and energetic as always." The man said before laughing, "You should probably take him in; it's good luck when a cat like him accepts you."

Sakura laughed a bit as she finished petting the cat, "I wish I could. Goodbye old kitty."

After a quick goodbye, she went back on her way, continuing to walk around and gather the things she needed. Trying not to think too much about Deidara's place. She decided that his place would eventually be revealed to her and she should leave it at that. She didn't realize till she was walking back to complex that the cat was still following.

The cat mewed again when she was walking back into the house. Sakura spun around to look at the cat that stared at her expectantly.

"Well aren't you a quiet one," Sakura said amused. "Not many cats can sneak around me like that. Not even Tora-chan."

The cat just purred.

"I can't bring you in; Shishou probably won't like a kitty. She prefers Tonton, Shizune-nee's pig." Sakura said apologetically, trying not to be taken in by the cat's cuteness.

The cat just looked at her with those big silver eyes, pleading with them. He looked like he wanted her love.

"I just can't little kitty, even if Tsunade-shishou said yes, I'd have to wash you to make sure you're not carrying a disease and then I'd have to make sure you had all your shots and everything! I just can't."

The cat watched her for a second more before purring and rubbing against her. She sighed in defeat as she opened the door and let the cat in. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad to have a cat. If her Shishou agreed then all she would have to do was some basic animal care, which wouldn't be much of a challenge for someone like her.

"You can't run around and be rubbing on everything. I have to ask to even see if I can keep you." Sakura said before looking out at the entrance garden.

She didn't see the cat's eyes glisten as it slowly walked inside, a calm stride as it walked further into the house.

It let out a purr as it thought to itself. It had been generations since his kind took to a human. This child seemed to radiate promise, but then again, so did the other residents of this household. It could feel it radiating off the occupants even through the walls.

The silver eyes gleamed again. Perhaps it was time to see what humans had to offer.

* * *

Again, FluffyKeira- go look her up. The cat was an idea from on of my readers -goes and checks up on the name- her name was DarkLillyOfTheNight96. Thank her for the cat. He's going to be interesting later on. (I told you I like input!)

So here are some things I would like you to answer:

**Did you like it?**

**How many of you are already liking where this is going?**

**How did you like how I did the chapter? **

**How did you like the ending? Wondering about the cat??**

**Anything _special_**** you want me to add later on?**

Here is the translations so far:

(Dat)_Tebayo: Naruto's japanese catch phrase... not sure it really means believe it. Someone told me it didn't mean anything though- like Gozoro._

_Kure-Tori: Clay bird_

_Shishou: master_

_obasan: Aunt_

_Baa-san or Baa-chan: old lady or grandma_

Please tell me what you think so far!!

Ja Ne

Volleys-chan


	10. Of Dates and Blondes

Hey everyone!

It's that time again where I update!!! I had this for a while, but I was slightly stuck on the next chapter and forgot to update!!! Well here it is!!!

Oh, by the way, I have started another DeiSaku, hoping I can finish one of these one day, but it has been on my mind and consuming it. So I am finally writing it. So far it's just their childhood. It is called _**Hummingbird**_.

Seriously, go read it. I think that rendition of Deidara is very interesting.

Can't wait till this one comes together too. But until then..

Enjoy

* * *

**_Kure-Tori_**

Chapter 10

_Of Dates and Blondes  


* * *

_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, yeah. Or it would be totally different! Dattebayo!**

* * *

Naruto was freaking out by now. Sakura was still out on her morning walk, so he couldn't ask her. He didn't know what a date entailed, he didn't know a place wasn't the ramen shop –which he knew Ino would throw a fit over- and he definitely had no clue where a nice place was either.

"Calm down, you're giving me a headache," Deidara said as he watched the other teen pace around the room before glancing back down at his report.

"But I don't know what to do!" Naruto said, "Ino is going to hurt me if I don't get this right! Aniki! Help!"

Naruto looked over to Deidara with a pleading look on his face. He had come to start calling Deidara 'aniki' when no one else was around.

"The hell if I know anything," Deidara scowled, "The most interaction I had with woman were on missions or living here. I am probably as clueless as you are, yeah."

"But you've pretended to be a girl!" Naruto said as he flailed his arms around, "You've got to know a _little_ more then me!"

Deidara sighed as he stopped writing, setting the pen down as looked at Naruto, "Woman are complicated, Naruto. That's all I really know, yeah. But Ino did say what she wanted, didn't she?"

Naruto paused a minute before nodding.

"Then do what she asked for. Take her to lunch-"

"But I don't know of any restaurants that will let me in, dattebayo!"

"She never said you had to take her to a restaurant. You're a good cook, make the food."

"But she's always on a diet!"

Deidara looked at him strangely, "She's a kunoichi, right?"

"Hai."

"Then she shouldn't be on a diet." Deidara said as he went back to working, "It's unhealthy for a kunoichi to not have enough calories to give her energy. She's not a civilian, so she has to give up on such silly things as watching her weight. As long as she trains properly, she shouldn't have a problem."

"Alright," Naruto sighed, "I'll see if I can't convince her. So a picnic?"

"I think girls like that, yeah," Deidara said as he nodded a bit.

"Alright! One thing down! Now, where should I take her?"

"Take her to your most favorite spot, yeah." Deidara said, "That's a no brainer."

"Yosh! Alright, so that fixes most of the problem, but what should I give her? She said she liked flowers and jewelry, but I can't buy flowers since her shop is the only one that sells to me and I can't buy jewelry since none of those shops even let me in." Naruto said with a sigh.

"Hmph," Deidara said with a angry glared, "That's just stupid on their part then, yeah. You aren't the Kyuubi, why treat you like a pariah? It's just stupid, yeah."

"Well I didn't give them much to go on as a kid. Before I became a ninja, I was Konoha's number one prankster. I was able to slip in and out of places without being caught and they would chase me for hours before catching me," Naruto said with a laugh, "Didn't go over very well for the civilians."

Deidara just shot his head up to stare at Naruto, "You would be chased for hours? Who was chasing you?"

Naruto shrugged, "Genin, Chuunin, Jounin, and the occasional ANBU… though it was always Iruka-sensei who caught me."

With that thought Naruto made a face, thinking hard, "I bet that was kinda embarrassing for those guys not even being able to catch a 12 year old."

Naruto didn't seem to notice the clogs in Deidara's brain working over time with that thought. Naruto was a natural at escape. He did it so many times it was probably just another means to an end for him. He was observant and could gleam information quickly and he was small, which was good for ninjas- though most usually were a bit tall and lanky for some reason. He was a little taller then Sakura, but still rather small. Deidara's eyes glowed a bit at the possibility the kid had, but for now, he needed help with his date.

"Naruto, go into my top desk drawer on the left and get me the scroll in it, yeah." Deidara said as he pointed to the desk.

Naruto just looked at him strangely for a second before getting up and doing as he was told. He handed the scroll over to Deidara, who began to look through it. Naruto realized it was a storage scroll.

"This one," Deidara said as he pointed the a seal, "Use your chakra and activate this one, yeah."

Naruto did as he was told and was shocked to see about four or five finely crafted hairpins pop into existence.

"Choose one," Deidara said as he laid them out.

"But-"

"You want to give her something, and I don't really use these, but their still nice, yeah. How about the one with lilacs?"

Deidara held out a silver hair pin with purple gems twisted into it in the shape of lilacs. It was beautiful, but Naruto couldn't understand why Deidara was giving it to him.

"She'd like it, her favorite color seems to be purple, but… why are you doing this?"

The concept seemed lost on Naruto. Deidara understood this. He felt lost when people gave him things as well, but he also knew it felt nice when people showed their affection for him. Sakura had made him feel happy all the time by just doing simple things, like combing his hair when he couldn't, helping him eat when he couldn't even hold the chopsticks, and comforting him when he felt as if the world was crashing in.

"Because you're my otouto and you need it more then I do," Deidara said with a small blush. He still wasn't use to doing things like this, "Plus what am I going to do with it? I'm not going to be dressing up like a girl anytime soon, yeah."

Naruto beamed at him with a huge grin, "Arigato! Ino-chan will love it!"

Deidara just nodded a bit, turning his head the other direction. There was a awkward silence since neither of them knew what to do next. Luckily for them, someone knocked at the door.

"Hey," Sakura said cheerfully as she walked in.

Her hair was wet and her clothes were a clean pair that Naruto knew she wasn't wearing earlier that morning.

"Morning Sakura-chan," Naruto greeted happily.

"Morning Sakura," Deidara said as he gave her a small smirk.

"So how are you two this morning? Naruto, are you getting ready for your date?" Sakura asked as she stepped inside the room and sat in her usual spot on Deidara's bed, "If you need some help, I know what Ino likes."

"It's okay!" Naruto said with a happy grin on his face, "I figured I'd take her out on a picnic! Also, Deidara helped me by giving me this to give to her."

He showed Sakura the hairpin and smiled happily when he noticed her face light up in a wondrous smile.

"Wow! Ino will love it! She totally goes for stuff like this!" Sakura said as she looked over to Deidara who as looking at his hands.

"Well I have to wrap it and get the picnic ready. Do we have a picnic basket somewhere?" Naruto asked as he began to leave the room.

"Try the closet in the hall, if not, use a storage scroll and surprise her with it," Sakura said, "Though good luck on getting her to eat."

"Meh, I'll try to convince her," Naruto said with a grin, "I'll you guys some food too, so you don't have to cook."

"Thanks Naruto!" Sakura said as she watched the boy retreat down the hall to the kitchen common room area.

"Dei, you have such neat stuff! Are you sure you don't need that?" Sakura asked as she watched him play around with his hands a bit.

"I don't need it," Deidara confirmed, "I have ton more where that came from and it wasn't one of my favorites, yeah."

"Oh, you have favorites?" Sakura teased with a grin on her face.

Deidara didn't look up at her while he nodded.

"Which ones?" Sakura asked as she poked him a bit to try to open him up.

Deidara didn't answer her, his face heated up a bit as he just fiddled with his hands. Sakura sighed as her teasing had made him clam up. He almost jumped when she started to pet his hair.

"I'm sorry for teasing you," Sakura said with an apologetic look, "I just find it really cute that you actually like hairpins. Not a lot of guys are well in tuned with that kind of stuff. It really is bothersome how they just don't get it."

"It's alright," Deidara said with a nod, looking back up at her, "I just…"

He fell short at what to say. Sakura decided to check up on Naruto before he left.

"It's fine Dei," Sakura said with a laugh, "You're awesome, you know that, right? Well, let me check up on Naruto and give him last minute tips before he heads off to face Ino."

Deidara nodded, trying to hide the faint flush on his face from her compliment. She walked out and headed to the kitchen.

Deidara groaned a bit as he laid down on his pillow with a muted 'thump', "What is she doing to me?"

* * *

"Hey," Sakura said as she popped her head in and noticed the blonde was finished placing a large bento box in a basket.

He had two placed out, one that he just finished closing and the other that had been closed. He smiled a second before using his Shadow clone jutsu and ordered the clones to go and take the basket somewhere.

"You heading out?" Sakura asked as she watched him walk towards her.

"Yes," Naruto said with a nervous smile, "Let's just hope Ino will be pleased, dattebayo."

"Why are you trying so hard?" Sakura asked, "I mean, you don't even like Ino, do you?"

Naruto shrugged, "I don't know her very well. How am I suppose to know if I like her if I don't try? Plus, even though she's forcing me to do this date, I have never had one. I am sort of excited that someone asked me out, so I want to do the best I can to please her."

Sakura smiled wide as she patted him on the head, "Be yourself and you'll do fine. Don't act like what everyone else expects you to, be yourself, like you are with me and Dei."

"Thanks Sakura-chan," Naruto said with a soft smile, before remembering something, "Oh yeah, I made you and Deidara a picnic too. He hasn't been outside in forever so maybe you can manage to get him outside for a bit. I bet he'd like that, 'tebayo. He's been cooped up in here too long."

"Sure," Sakura said with a nod, "I think today is the day we start trying to mobilize him again. I bet if I help him a bit, he could walk out there himself."

"Really? He'll like that," Naruto said before remembering the time, "Crap, I got to go, see you later Sakura-chan."

"By Naruto-kun," Sakura said as she watched him dash out the door.

She smiled a bit as she grabbed the basket. She wanted to snoop and see what he had put in it, but decided to wait and find out. She went into the closet and grabbed a blanket and headed outside to set the place so all she had to do was help sit Deidara down.

She chose a spot under a blossoming tree, spring was finally in full bloom. She mused on that thought as she spread out the blanket and laid the basket out as well. She went in and out a couple times, getting some pillows to make the picnic more comfortable for Deidara before actually going and fetching the blonde.

He was writing again. That report looked more like a novel than just a few pages of information that it was originally suppose to be. Once Jiraiya saw this, he'd never call Deidara useless again.

Deidara looked up at her with a nod, before looking back down at his work.

"Ah, ah, ah," Sakura said as scooped the tray he was using to write on off his lap.

"Hey, I was working," Deidara said, a little surprised at what she was doing.

"Well," Sakura said as she set it on his desk, "I have a small surprise for you if you behave."

"And what would that be?" Deidara asked, as he cocked his head a bit, looking cute with curious expression on his flustered face.

"Practicing your motor skills," Sakura said as she looked down at him, his expressions seemed to brighten considerably to that information. She could practically feel him radiate with joy, "Your legs are going to be a bit weak, so we'll slowly build our way up okay?"

"Hai," Deidara said with a huge smirk on his face.

He was thrilled at the thought of walking again!

Sakura positioned herself so she would be right in front of him. She talked him though the beginning, telling him to what to do before sitting up with his legs swung over the bed.

"Now, you might lock up a bit, but that is to be expected. We are going to walk a bit and _maybe_, if you're good, I'll take you outside."

She smiled when she noticed Deidara's determination rise. He slowly touched his feet to the ground, putting his weight on them slowly as to not hurt himself, but his knees ended up locking anyways. Sakura caught him in an instant.

"It's alright," She said calmly as she held his hands and let him use her as a source of balance, "Just go slow, we are in no hurry."

"Alright," Deidara said with a sigh.

He hated being this weak, this defenseless and trying to walk again only reminded him how much he was dependant on Sakura, or even Naruto. Yes he was grateful for the two who helped care for him.

He was grateful for Naruto who usually ended up being the one who dragged him to the bathroom and back and helped him clean himself instead of having Sakura or Tsunade do it. It was well within his dignity to have Naruto do it.

He was grateful to Sakura who made sure he had his meals, helped feed him when he couldn't, and brushed his hair after a shower so it didn't snarl. She kept him company and went out of her way with the little things she did, like right now. She had probably made sure that Naruto wasn't around so learning to walk again wasn't as shameful.

"Your doing pretty good," Sakura said with an upbeat tone as she led him to the edge of the kitchen, the door to outside already open, letting in a nice breeze from outside.

His legs felt like they were about to cramp up a bit, but he refused to give up till he had been outside for a bit. His legs began to burn, but he pretended not to notice.

He _wanted_ to go outside.

* * *

Naruto sighed in relief as he saw Ino's flower shop, he quickly looked at the time, grinning at the thought that he was on time. He entered the shop and smiled happily as he saw Mrs. Yamanaka running the store.

"Oh, Naruto-chan!" Yamanaka-san said as she saw one of her favorite customers, "How are you today?"

"I'm fine Yamanaka-san," Naruto said with a nod, "I was looking for Ino. Would she be here today, 'tebayo?"

Yamanaka-san blinked a second before her eyes widened in surprise, "_You're_ Ino-chan's date?"

"Hai," Naruto said with a small laugh, he still couldn't believe it himself, "I was just as surprised when she told me."

"Oh no," Yamanaka-san sighed, "Don't tell me she ordered you to take her out. That child. I'm so sorry Naruto."

Naruto waved it off with a small smile, "Actually, I'm kind of honored, I've never been on a date so I actually don't mind, but she did tell me to be here at eleven and I don't want to keep her waiting."

"My," Yamananka said with a laugh, "Where's the little boy who came in here every morning to watch me water my garden and ask about the flowers? I think a man has taken his place."

Naruto blushed as he fidgeted a bit under her gaze, "Ino's upstairs waiting for you. Head on up, alright?"

"Thanks you Yamanaka-san," Naruto said as he began to head upstairs.

"And watch out of Inochi, he'll be trying to harass you for dating his daughter."

"Arigato for the head's up," Naruto called back.

Mrs. Yamanaka laughed quietly to herself as she went back to maintaining her store, "That girl doesn't even know the size of the catch she has yet. I guess I should start designing the floral arrangement for the wedding."

Naruto headed upstairs, knocking gently on the door up there, listening for the 'come in' that was shouted across the room before entering. Inochi was glaring at him as he entered the room. Naruto was shaking in his shoes, but he put on a good show.

"Ohiayo Yamanaka-san, you're wife said it would be alright it I came up here to fetch Ino-chan." Naruto said, giving a small bow to the elder like Tsunade had directed him to do for clan heads- which Inochi was one of.

"So you are the one taking my little girl on a date, huh?"

"Hai," Naruto said with a nod, "Is that alright with you, Yamanaka-san?"

"Please call me Inochi," Inochi said with a intimidating grin.

"I would prefer to speak to you in respect, Yamanaka-san, but if you insist, I will call you Inochi-san, tebayo." Naruto said with a nod.

Thank GOD for Tsunade nailing this into his head when he was learning from her in the office during the afternoons. Inochi seemed pleased with him so far.

"So where will you be taking her?"

And it all came crashing down.

"I wanted it to be a surprise," Naruto said as he glanced up at the hallway the probably led to Ino, "But if you need to know…"

"As long as you remember that I am second in command of the Torture and Interrogation department, I don't think I need to know. Just remember what I will do to you if you hurt my little girl." Inochi said as he picked up the paper and began to read, "Her room is upstairs on the right. Don't do anything you'll regret."

"Yes… Inochi-san," Naruto said with a gulp.

It was then that Ino came down stairs, "Oh, Naruto, you're here. I'm almost ready, come on upstairs okay?"

She gave a quick glare at her innocent looking father while ushering Naruto upstairs.

Naruto was timid as he did so, his stomach dropping a bit as he entered her room.

* * *

Sakura sighed a bit as she looked over to see the blonde laying limp against the trunk of the tree, asleep.

He had been so determined to get outside. She could see it in the way he gritted his teeth when his legs began to agitate him, but she couldn't confirm that was going on till he finally allowed her to check, which wasn't until they were sitting at the picnic blanket.

He had fallen asleep right when they had gotten here, so he didn't even have time to see the picnic basket.

She didn't mind, it gave her a while to watch him and make sure that he was okay. His face twisted in his sleep and he began to bite his bottom lip. Something in his dream was upsetting him. It was times like these that she wished that she was Ino. With a simple couple of hand signs, she would be able to get inside his mind. But then again, she wasn't suppose to use chakra on him.

Right now, his body was still resetting its chakra, slowly and surely leaking a little bit more back into his chakra channels. The first day they could still use healing chakra on him since it channels were still use to having large amounts of chakra flowing through them, but now, they were slowly adapting to more and more flowing back in. The process was slow, but the results were easily worth it.

He muttered something under his breath, turning his head a bit as he furrows his brow even more. He was confused it seemed. She would have let him be, but that was when he began to panic and cry out in his sleep.

"Deidara," Sakura said as she touched him gently, worry apparent in her voice, "It's all right Dei, you're safe now."

He was beginning to whimper, curling slowly into a ball. Sakura didn't know why, but her body reacted to him being like this. It automatically pulled him into her instead, she scooted closer as she pulled his head into her embrace, running her fingers through his long tresses of silky golden hair, and whispering words of encouragement to him. She knew he could over come this, it would just take time.

"The Moon's eye plan," Deidara breathed, still asleep, "Ten tail Jubi… combination… of nine bijuu…"

And with that, he calmed down, his sore muscles lying limply as Sakura shifted him so he was more comfortable. She stroked his hair, praying for one of the ANBU to ask what he had said.

Oh Kami it had sounded important.

"Sakura-san," Cat appeared in the tree, "You look in distress."

"Please relate this message to Tsunade-sama," Sakura said, gulping a bit, "Ask her what she knows about the ten tailed beast, Jubi… and tell her this: The moon's eye plan."

"Of course, right away, Sakura-san," Cat said before disappearing.

"Deidara," Sakura said as she looked at the blonde worriedly.

That must have been the last thing he had learned before he was attacked. Probably the last thought that he had had. If it really was an Uchiha, then there was no doubt he tried to erase Deidara's memories before killing him. He just didn't expect Deidara to get away.

As a matter of fact, if Sharigan had been used on him, how _did_ Deidara break it?

"Sakura?" Deidara's voice croaked.

"Hi," Sakura said as she looked down at the blond she was cradling, "you were having a nightmare."

Understanding entered his eyes as he shifted a bit in her hold. Sakura helped him lay back against the tree, but was careful of his mood now. She was going to have to ask him about the Moon's Eye Plan, and it wasn't helping that he looked so somber.

"Deidara," Sakura started, looking at him nervously, "Before I was able to get you to calm down… you said something."

"I did?" He looked surprised, "What did I say, yeah? I can't remember."

Sakura looked over at the picnic basket before looking back at him. She guessed that she wasn't going to have that relaxing day with him now.

Deidara seemed to notice her disappointment. With a swift glance, he noticed the picnic basket for the first time. He hadn't seen it there before, but now he could tell that Naruto had made it for the two of them to enjoy. He felt bad for ruining it by muttering something that must have been alarming. He wanted her to be happy, so he decided to reprioritize a bit.

"You know what? I don't want to know," Deidara said with a shake of his head, "We'll talk to Tsunade-obasan about it later, yeah. Right now I just want to know what's in the picnic basket."

Sakura didn't miss the gleam in his eyes. She was shell shocked for a moment before she began to smile happily. Deidara was right, it could wait. For now it was better to move on with happier moments. He was right, they could wait for Tsunade.

"I don't really know," Sakura said as she made a grab for it, "I was waiting for you."

"Well then, let's see what the sneaky little blonde put in the basket, yeah."

And with that, the two of them went on to lighter matters.

* * *

He flicked his tail. He was bored. It wasn't that he couldn't think of something to waste time away. No, if anything he was quite enjoying the sunlight that dried his fur.

The rosette had taken him straight to her room, given him a bath, and had taken her own shower then put on new clothes afterwards that he had yet to touch.

He felt a little insulted that she thought him some dirty animal, but he would have to get over it. For all she knew he was just a dirty animal that she had taken in by the goodness of her own heart.

_"Remember, most shinobis take their orders from their Hokage. I would have to ask mine to keep you, but he's not into cats. Sorry!"_

The words of a young redhead jumped back into his head. He almost groaned. Remembering that fiery redhead just made him feel old. He yawned a bit and stretched before pulling himself off the floor.

If he remembered correctly, this was the current Hokage's residence… So if he won her over, then he could stay. His sliver eyes gleamed in the sunlight as he turned towards the closed window.

The rosette might have closed her door and thought she had him stuck in this room, but she didn't. No one could keep him where he didn't want to be. Even in death.

With a quick use of his claws, he unlocked the window and pushed it open. He gazed about as he looked around. An ANBU was retreating to go no doubt to the Hokage and report. He decided it would be best to follow him.

After all, he _needed_ to be allowed to stay here.

That is, until his final judgment had been passed.

* * *

So how was it? I think I have asked you enough questions that you are trained enough to answer on your own.

But then again.... how do you think Naruto is doing so far?

Deidara and Sakura?

And what about this cat?

Well until then,

_-bows-_ Please take care of my story!!

Ja Ne

Volleys-chan


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